Syntheremin is a portmanteau of “Synthesizer” and “Theremin”, and an original musical instrument that a Japanese composer AQi Fzono conceived and invented with the cooperation of a Japanese engineer Michio Kurahashi in 1995. It’s a Theremin with functions of controlling waveforms and parameters as well as synthesizing sounds.
One of the distinctive functions is that it has a series of antennas and each one corresponds to a parameter, so the parameters (pitch and volume like regular Theremin, plus filter, Q, envelope, LFO speed etc.) can be controlled real-time just like an analog synthesizer with a lot of knobs. This way the randomness that Theremin has is further emphasized, and the unpredictable and psychedelic sounds can be generated continuously. AQi Fzono says in one of his interviews that he likes to use it as a random effect machine like an old and huge Buchla modular synthesizer rather than playing tonal scales like a regular Theremin.
Syntheremin was used for the first time in AQi Fzono’s 5th solo album “Cosmology” released in 1998 revealing its intriguing sounds. He says that it was the first prototype it was not very stable, and would like to build another improved unit. It fuses the elements of modular synthesizer and Theremin, is thought to be one of the electronic music instruments with unlimited possibilities of expansion in the future. A portable version of Syntheremin was used most recently in Damo Suzuki (former member of Can) Japan tour in 2005.
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