The Electric Kalimba An ancient percussive instrument from Africa gets an upgrade.
by Jennifer Guerra
(2008-04-22) The kalimba is an ancient African instrument made out of wood and tiny metal tines that you pluck with your thumbs. Two Detroit musicians have updated the instrument for the 21st century. Over 100 of their hand-crafted kalimbas are on display at the UFO Factory in Detroit. Michigan Radio's Jennifer Guerra visited the gallery...and sent back this audio postcard:
"Hi my name is Elliot Bergman.
I've built most of the instruments along with Warn Defever. And they're all based around the kalimba or African thumb piano. It has many different names.
Ours are sort of mutant hybrid instruments. They're all amplified. They can sound dreamlike and bell like, or like a distorted electric guitar depending on how loud you turn up the amplifier you're plugging them into.
It has a very percussive sound, so it's like a marimba or vibraphone. But those are vibrating bars and these are sort of vibrating bars except they're thin and you're plucking them. So I guess it's sort of like a cross between a harp and a vibraphone I guess you'd say."
"Hi, my name is Warn Defever.
The great thing about the kalimba is that it's easy, it's really loud and it's small. People don't want to play the harp or grand piano. Kids don't want to play drums. Drum machine, that's cool, you can put it in your backpack. The electric thumb piano? It almost fits in your pocket.
The kalimba really brings people together because the best musician and the worst musician sound the same when they're playing the electric thumb piano. Probably the only thing that gives you an edge is if you're really good at sending text messages because you use your thumbs and it's the same position you hold a thumb piano.
It's metallic but organic, it's just beautiful. It's the universal sound. It's the oldest sound. It's like chanting om."
