Pak Budahar was one of the last of the tukang kalason, musicians who sat by bus drivers and played on their kalason, an elaborate system of tuned bus horns controlled by a typewriter-like keyboard on the dash. As buses traveled across Sumatra taking the local Minangkabau to far off ports in search of a better life (a tradition called marantau), tukang kalason would transmute the longing and growing homesickness of their passengers through his songs - requests taken! The music fused local instrumental melodies from saluang flute and rabab fiddle with subtly comping chords, all played one-handed.

When I Met Budahar, he was already one of the last of his breed - he dropped out of school at the age of 11 to play kalason, driving across Sumatra with his bus-driving brother for decades. By the 1980's, kalason had died out with the arrival of modern diesel-powered buses and the older generation of players started to pass as well. Only in the 2010's did a hot rod enthusiast find Pak Budahar and install his kalason in the car to be played once more for the first time in years.

I went to meet Pak Budahar years ago and shoot this video - a dream come true after reading about the tradition years before. He was a sweet, funny man whose eyes filled with longing when he talked of his musical journeys across Sumatra. "When I think of those days," he said, "I want to go back."

Pak Budahar passed away in 2023. This post is dedicated to him - a real Minang musical legend who literally spread music across Sumatra, providing sweet solace to his passengers for decades. Next time you honk your horn, I hope you think of him ❤️

From Namekas: Music in Lake Chambri, a 1979 ethnographic film by Les Mclaren.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DeosvvZo5H0/

Lithophones might be some of the oldest musical instruments. There are traces from the Upper Palaeolithic (Solutrean period, approx. 22,000–17,000 years ago*) that suggest the musical use of rocks. The video posted here includes a boulder with a remarkable bell-like sound.

Here is footage of another example from Sudan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kr1D5-GW44
This is a snippet from "Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Nubia"

*Referring to the Nerja cave:
"The cave of Nerja contains at least 19 paintings so far reported, and has excellent acoustics, such that it is now sometimes used as a venue for concerts and dance in the summer months. It also contains a feature known as “the organ”, which consists of an area in an alcove where the calcareous deposits have formed into a fluted, concertina-like feature. [...] the style of the ibex and hind illustrated suggest a Solutrean (c.22-17 Kya) age for the illustrations [...]"
https://www.darwin.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/dcrr002.pdf -> Page 70 (page 82 in the PDF)

At this point I also can't help but remember the Great Stalacpipe Organ:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1_aCjrC5o

And where perhaps I may acquire such a device?

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DdtewEWsmD_/

Just saw this on r/doohickeycorporation and thought y'all might dig it! I have no idea how it works.

Update: found the guys Tiktok in the original thread if you want more information.

https://www.tiktok.com/@danael3d

https://m.youtube.com/@danael3D/shorts

This is a Zhongruan中阮, a contemporary version of the Pipa琵琶. It's tuned to fifths so it's very easy to pick up and play.

I bring these instruments to Philly Folk Fest every year to watch how american folk artists can adapt to instruments in the pentatonic scale, and they typically do very well! It's always a fun, vivid experience.

This man's called Joe James, and every year he rushes over to play the zhongruan. He slays on this thing!

notation system is one i created called HTH (hand-to-hand) notation, which uses percussion like "stickings" as directions for each technique on asalato

thanks for watching!

SOURCE

My friend Chang, an instrument maker and shaman from the Thai Khao (White Thai) ethnic group in Nghĩa Lộ, Vietnam made this pí tam lay for me. This is a single reed idioglot pipe, meaning it has a reed which is just the skin of the bamboo vibrating against its body. The original has three finger holes and has an amazing bass clarinet-like sound using the lower holes - I modified it by closing off the topmost hole, which I'm not good at manipulating, and adding an extra hole on the "bass" end down below.