Baschet Brothers

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The Cristal Baschet

The Baschet Brothers are two French brothers named Francois and Bernard Baschet who collaborate on creating sound sculptures and inventing instruments, such as the "Cristal Baschet". Francois Baschet is a sculptor and Bernard Baschet is an engineer. The Baschet Brothers invented the inflatable guitar, the aluminum piano and many other instruments. They created an "educational instrumentarium" for exposing young people to musical concepts.

Beginning in 1952, the Baschets started research into all existing musical instruments and put this knowledge to work in creating dozens of structures sonores (i.e., 'sonorous sculptures'). Their visually striking instruments are crafted out of steel and aluminum and amplified by large curved conical sheets of metal, and are most often easy to play and accessible to people with any level of experience.

One example of this is the Hemisfair Musical Fountain, which consists of an array of posts at the top of which are groups of conical sound diffusers, and above them circles of metal prongs. These are played by jets of water aimed by observers.