Short description: One of the first if not the first electronic instrument.
Approximate number made: Many different models made by a lot of different companies.
Production period: 1918-?

Keys: Well…. Read on.  

Used by: The Beach Boys (good vibrations), Clara Rockmore, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Led Zeppelin, loads of sci-fi and horror films of the 50s and 60s.

"With this instrument, I have made it possible to produce tones of constancy of pitch not even remotely approached by the best piano or organ". - Leon Theremin, 1927

Description: There should be some kind of grading system where one could measure how much time is spent fiddling with an instrument in relation to how much of it is actually recorded. An auto komp drum machine would score pretty high. You turn it on, choose rhythm and tempo and off you go. The Theremin would score pretty low on such a scale because I can easily say that the Theremin is probably the most difficult instrument in Roth Händle to learn to master. A lot of fiddling and not that much gets used…not for public use anyway.

Invented by Russian scientist Leon Theremin (1896-1993) in Moscow , Russia . The Thereminvox was the first bridge between electronics and music. While repairing a radio in 1918 Leon Theremin discovered how his movements disturbed and changed the magnetic fields and sounds of the radio… By having a fixed tone as in an oscillator one would have a tone that could be manipulated and changed by moving your hand closer or farther away from the antennae. If one could master this technique one could play melodies and music on this new invention. This was the birth of one of the most unique and interesting musical ideas and instruments in modern time. Leon Theremin went on to live a very stormy live, being kidnapped by the KGB et.c but I wont go into that….

The first person to tell me about the Theremin was my good friend Greg Putman in Houston , Texas . On one very wet night he told me about this weird instrument that you didn't touch while playing and that it created these out-of-worldly sci-fi sound effects. His only reference at the time was Jimmy Page. My quest had started.

There are two Theremins at Roth Händle. One little toy one that is just about the size of a stompbox and then a big Big Briar one. The little one was picked up on a Pineforest Crunch tour in Japan . I was a very happy boy when I found it. I never thought that I would actually get a hold of one. We used it that very same night live in our set. It was more or less impossible to play it (as in coherent melodies) but it made really cool radio-esque squeaky sounds. The other one I got was payment for playing on the White Willow album.

Quite surprisingly I turn it on ever so often. The last one to play it was Ane Brun who tried it out during the Two times the trauma sessions. Kit le Fever used it for Radiohead esque noise. Brighteye Brison, Nanook of the North and Deadwood Forest are probably the only bands that have actually recorded melodies with it at the studio.

The Theremin might be an incredibly difficult instrument to master but its significance on modern music can not be overestimated. No Theremin, No Moog, No Moog, No Kraftwerk, No Kraftwerk, No Bobby Klot…well skip that last one…