The Crank Ensemble profile picture

The Crank Ensemble

About Me

The Crank Ensemble is a San Francisco-based performance group whose musicians create rhythmic and repetitive patterns by using handmade crank-operated machines. The instruments are constructed by artist Larnie Fox; each has a mounted piezo (contact microphone) to amplify its sound. The ensemble of cranks creates layers of sound, resulting in a range of a sparse new-music style "plinking" to melodic loopiness and hardcore noise. The Crank Ensemble has performed at numerous local spaces/events such as the Luggage Store, the LAB, the Hemlock Tavern, 12 Galaxies, at 21 Grand as part of the Edgetone Music Summit, Godwaffle Noise Pancakes, the Maker Faire, and at New Music Bay Area's "Garden of Memory" columbarium walk-through event at Chapel of the Chimes.

See: http://www.crankensemble.com

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 29/01/2007
Band Website: http://www.infoflow.com/larnie/cranks/
Band Members:

Larnie Fox, instrument builder, conductor, and player.
The Crank Ensemble players include (or have included) Bodil Fox, Lena Strayhorn, Chris Miller, Keith Nomura, Patricia Ravarra, Eugene Chen, Adam Schraft, Matt Davignon, Mark Brest van Kempen, Aaron Ximm, Bronwyn Ximm, Kevin Mathieu, Vicki Olds, Molli Amara Simon, Mary Behm-Steinberg, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, and God knows whom else.
Sounds Like:
"I first made a set of six hand-cranked instruments. There is a mount for a contact microphone (piezo) on the back of each one, so it can be amplified. Each has a hand-crank in the middle, and all but the Spring Board Hand Crank have a feather-spine that acts as a plectrum that rotates when the hand-crank is cranked. As the plectrum rotates, it plucks something that vibrates and is amplified. The "something" that vibrates is in some cases a rubber band, in some wires sticking up, in one it is a metal strip, and in another one is a heavy spring. Each has a handy handle too."

(I now have many more instruments which you can see at the Crank Ensemble’s next performance.)

--Larnie Fox


Type of Label: Major

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