Electronic percussion improvisation

Percussionist Olof Olsson performs an improvisation on an electronic percussion instrument designed and programmed by Palle Dahlstedt. In this instrument, the musician navigates a huge space of possible sounds, through playing and listening. All pads play a single polyphonic sound engine, but each pad generates its own set of parameters. The size of the cluster of parameter sets can be varied, and the sounds of different pads can be blended, i.e., a pad has an effect also on the sound of the other pads. At any time, the whole cluster of sounds can be moved in any direction. When the musician presses a pedal switch, the cluster is moved towards the current sound, and then this subspace can be explored - so the sounds are changed through playing, and the timberal variation is virtually limitless. This instrument is a percussion adaption of the vector mapping technique used in the instruments Palle Dahlstedt designed for duo pantoMorf.