John Bowers - Victorian Synth

Photograph of one iteration of John Bowers' "Victorian Synthesiser" instrument
John Bowers (b. 1957) works with home-brew electronics, self-made instruments and reconstructions of antique image and sound-making devices, alongside contemporary digital technology, and has taken a very different approach to instrument invention with his 'Victorian Synthesiser'. This ongoing project seeks to build an instrument “boasting the kinds of parts and capabilities traditional synthesisers have (oscillators, filters, amplitude envelopes, modulation) but using techniques known to the Victorians”. (Bowers, www.jmbowers.net/works/victorian/html)