I collected my first musical stones on a small beach near Dover.

I carry with me when performing a suitcase full of objects that I see or hear as an extension of my drum kit. I reach for these objects when I feel the need to extend the sonic boundaries and techniques of the traditional kit.

I first started looking for new sounds for my alto saxophone by making reeds out of many kinds of materials such as metal, wood, plastic, and even chocolate (which didn’t last long).

There are many small objects, little instruments, and various pieces of detritus that end up in an improvising musician’s toolbox; there are numerous reasons why and how they ended up there, and why they remain or get left behind.

I’ve tried various plastics—condoms, material from rubber gloves, etc.—but have found that rubber balloons give a warmer percussive sound and you can also rub and bend the membrane, thereby altering pitch.

In my music making, I’m mostly working with analogue media: tape recorders and reel-to-reel tape machines and recently in addition sculptural antennas.

I have a battered piece of metal pipe, about the length of my forearm, which has become a surprisingly regular feature in my music and live shows.

Setting the fork end in motion, the fork vibrates between 10 seconds and several minutes, depending on quality and string tension. It creates a bright sound, rich in overtones, a pulse which slows down and eventually ebbs.

I recently lost my favorite preparation. It was a metal rod, about three feet long. It was hollow, with a 3 cm perimeter. I thought it was alumi- num, but on trying to replace it, I realized morosely that it wasn’t.

When I was a kid strolling around our small farm, I always had a strong affection for found objects. Small stones, pieces of driftwood from a small riverbank, special shaped or colored leaves from trees.

I work with a “kit” of sound-making objects that I have been collecting for many years. To play the objects, I activate them physically and ges- turally, and then process their sounds via my Max-based processing instrument.

My main interest in using the sticks is adding to their sonic possibilities, to continue my research in phase shifting or speed illusions as well as hemiolas, with the keyboard, vertigo-like fabrics of animated sounds; adding sort of contra-punctual vocal endeavors too.

I reinvent principles of vocal articulation distorting and shifting the relationship of mouth, tongue, palate, and breathing patterns. Hid- ing a membrane inside my mouth, an invisible object, yet very noisy, seemed to be an exciting idea.

Inspired by Hal, I began to make my own instruments (and even be- gan my education as a piano technician), and I eventually discovered the possibilities of the contact microphone, which opens the field of microscopic (microphonic?) discoveries: any object could now bring out a rich and full sound, even for an audience, regardless of how little it sounded acoustically.

She promptly gifted me one and after gen- tle but swift inauguration into my arsenal of utensils, these slim metal blades transformed my approach to the semi-acoustic guitar. This initial experience led to a minor obsession with streetsweeper blades and these, new to me utensils, became the basis of a slowly developing group of prepared guitar techniques that I brought into service when performing.

A favorite object of mine is a small, bugle-shaped bicycle horn that I’ve had since I was 6 years old.