Following my post about Dekotora, I thought I’d talk about japanese artist Ujino Muneteru who could have been a Dekotora driver from an aesthetics standpoint.

Since 2004, he’s been building instruments called “Rotators” which are a well crafted mix of sundry household appliances. When I discovered “Rotators” I was amazed how carefully assembled they were. It wouldn’t make sound yet it’d be still beautiful pieces of art. But it’s actually designed for making sounds. Muneteru controls “Rotators” through a kind of mixer which turns on/off the instruments. Beat patterns are made by sticking small cubes on vinyl discs and using custom turntables.

The Love Arms Series is nice too.

Website: http://the-rotators.com

There’s an interesting interview of Muneteru on pingmag.jp.

“I set up everything on the table and control everything from the Rotatorhead, so it ends up looking like a cooking show on TV. As for the instruments, the permanent members of the Rotators are: the blender, for its heavy, low frequency sounds - like a punchy kick drum; the drill, set up too for its snappy, tight snare drum sound; and the hair dryer, which is always involved with my performances because it resembles a fuzzy bass but sometimes takes the role of vocals. Then, I control the Rotatorhead and program it to play in a variety of ways.”

More videos on http://www.youtube.com/rotators