Home Swinger

A Home Swinger is a musical instrument created by Yuri Landman. The instrument has 12 strings, an electronic pickup and a movable rod to alter the pitch of the instrument.

Landman created the instrument for workshops at European festivals and venues, where participants built their own copy within four hours. In 2010 also workshops in the US are hosted by Knitting Factory and Eyedrum. In addition to this building workshop, he performs with the participants, where they play musical ensemble pieces in the tradition of the multiple guitar compositions of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca.

The Home Swinger is derived from his Moodswinger and a DIY-version of this instrument. When played at one part of a string, the opposed part starts to resonate, depending on a predictable mathematical ratio of the strings' lengths divided by the rod. If the rod is on a harmonic position the created multiphonic tone is consonant and increases in volume and sustain because of the reciprocal string resonance. The sound is comparable with the sound of bells.

The instrument was nominated as one of the instruments for the second Guthman Musical Instrument Competition 2010 at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. In 2010 the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona included a Home Swinger as well as a Moodswinger in their collection as two pieces of the Dutch section of musical instrument inventions. The Rotterdam based art space and music venue WORM owns a Home Swinger together with a series of other instruments made by Landman, in their music studio for their artist-in-residence programm.

Several known artists, such as David Holmes, Wu Fei, Dustin Wong, Jad Fair, Thread Pulls, These Are Powers, The Go! Team, The Luyas, Micachu, A Place To Bury Strangers, Killed By 9V Batteries attended one of the workshops and have copies of the instrument.