Following on STS’ Harmonium, jjthrash, creator of an Audulus Game of Life, has posted a Hymnotron. It’s based on the Dewanatron Hymnotron, which is basically an ingenious instrument for playing justly intoned chords. Taking a look at some of the other instruments the Dewans have built is a little like coming across the Ciat-Lonbard instruments for the first time. They certainly present a very specific (beautifully handcrafted) world of their own. They received some attention a few years back with articles in The New Yorker and New York Times (and a nice portrait on Rhizome) after Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails used their Swarmatron on the soundtrack for The Social Network.
The technique of stacking sine tones (and in the case of the Hymnotron adding harmonics through a process of wavefolding) reminded me of the Telharmonium, which I’d come across while taking a look at the Make Noise tELHARMONIC, and the still somewhat unusual appearance of triadic harmony in the modular world.