Logo
DiS Needs You: Save our site »
  • Logo_home2
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • In Photos
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Search
  • Community
  • Records
  • In Depth
  • Blog
  • Community

THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND CLOSED.

Please join the conversation over on our new forums »

If you really want to read this, try using The Internet Archive.

80789

Staff-generated

Planet Gear: Apparat Organ Quartet's Arp Explorer
Planet Gear: Apparat Organ Quartet's Arp Explorer
sean by Sean Adams November 24th, 2011

All week this week Apparat Organ Quartet kick off a new 'Planet Gear' irregular feature for DiS, in which we ask musicians to get a bit geeky and talk us through the equipment that makes the magic happen....


"My Arp Explorer is one of the first so called user-friendly synthesizers to enter Iceland. It was designed by Americans to be a portable, easy-to-use performance instrument. A friend of mine bought it in 1978 but by then it had been in use for a few years by the guy who brought it to Iceland. My first experience of the Arp was one year later. My band was playing a small concert in Reykjavik, backing up my friends band. I got permission from my friend to use his Arp Explorer. I put it on top of my organ and was very exited. I didn't know anything about how to use this kind of instrument but I got two minutes to experiment with it before it was my turn on stage.

This first performance with the Arp was a disaster in a way because, when I started to play, I completely lost control of the instrument and the beautiful melodies I had in my mind never came to the ears of the audience. The audience only got something that sounded like very unmusical feedback and shivering resonance. But I fell in love. I managed to persuade my friend to sell his Arp synthesizer to me. He did not like the idea because he had heard the performance but I can be very persuasive and also could offer him lot of money (by the standards of young Icelandic musicians in the late seventies). That was because I had been working hard for a few months on the high-power lines in the highlands of Iceland.

My Arp has always been dysfunctional. It is not just my clumsiness. Some knobs work this month and some haven't been working for many years. The instrument is definitely not in a mint condition and never has been! A guy who was helping me to fix the power supply a few years ago wanted me to throw the whole synthesizer away.

Some keys trigger strangely (or not at all) and often play odd notes on release. The sliders need to be drowned in contact cleaner to make them work. The oscillator has his own free will and the filters have a new function every time you turn the instrument on. The Wave-controllers are broken and only work now and then. The original pitch-shift knob was stolen (that's strange) and had to be replaced by a knob from an old calculator. The instrument is nearly always slightly out of tune, no matter how much effort you put in the tuning. Twice, my Arp has given me 220 Volts in a concert when I opened it to fix a stuck key and forgot to switch off the current...but I like the taste of electricity.

I've been using my Arp for over 30 years. It can be heard on quite a few records and I have played it in innumerable concerts in Iceland and all over Europe. Once I took it with me to the United States. That was the last time it went overseas, because there was a heatwave in New York and in Central Park it completely broke down.

It took a few months to find someone willing to help me in the reconstructing of it and it was expensive (by the standards of an Icelandic organ-player). Now I only use it in the Apparathouse (our studio) and once or twice a year in carefully selected events. I still don't know exactly what will happen the next time I turn it on - but that's the beauty of it. I love my imperfect Arp Explorer."

By Hörður Bragason.

arp 2
arp 3



LATEST


  • Drowned in Sound is back!


  • Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Year: 2020


  • Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter


  • Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing


  • Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alternative must sees


  • A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

Share on
   
Love DiS? Become a Patron of the site here »


Left-arrow

Spotifriday #117

This week on DiS as ...

Mobback
80787
80792

Planet Gear: Apparat Organ Quartet's ...

This week on DiS as ...

Mobforward
Right-arrow


LATEST

    news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143
  • news


    Drowned in Sound's 21 Favourite Albums of the Y...

  • 106141

    news


    Drowned in Sound to return as a weekly newsletter

  • 106139
  • Playlist


    Lykke Li's Sadness Is A Blessing

  • 106138

    Festival Preview


    Glastonbury 2019 preview playlist + ten alterna...

  • 106137
  • Interview


    A Different Kind Of Weird: dEUS on The Ideal Crash

  • 106136

    Festival Review


    Way Out East: DiS Does Sharpe Festival 2019

  • 106135
  • Festival Review


    25 years of SPOT Festival: DiS Picks Its Best 11

  • 106134
MORE


    feature


    Why winners always quit, OR: The Gonzo Guide To...

  • 21429
  • feature


    Mogwai on Radiohead: Robin Hoods or Robbing Gits?

  • 66649

    feature


    Radiohead's Kid A - the DiS re-appraisal

  • 101472
  • news


    Drowned in Sound is back!

  • 106143

    Staff-generated


    Year 2000 - A Playlist of Songs Wot Soundtracke...

  • 53565
  • news


    Q1 Digest: Most Read and Editor's Recommended R...

  • 94692

    Artist-generated


    Rappers and Melody: An Analysis by Chilly Gonzales

  • 96777
  • feature


    The Critic Sleeps Alone Tonight... Fighting Ove...

  • 93699
MORE
Drowned in Sound
  • DROWNED IN SOUND
  • HOME
  • SITE MAP
  • NEWS
  • IN DEPTH
  • IN PHOTOS
  • RECORDS
  • RECOMMENDED RECORDS
  • ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
  • FESTIVAL COVERAGE
  • COMMUNITY
  • MUSIC FORUM
  • SOCIAL BOARD
  • REPORT ERRORS
  • CONTACT US
  • JOIN OUR MAILING LIST
  • FOLLOW DiS
  • GOOGLE+
  • FACEBOOK
  • TWITTER
  • SHUFFLER
  • TUMBLR
  • YOUTUBE
  • RSS FEED
  • RSS EMAIL SUBSCRIBE
  • MISC
  • TERM OF USE
  • PRIVACY
  • ADVERTISING
  • OUR WIKIPEDIA
© 2000-2023 DROWNED IN SOUND