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Tom NunnLink to home page : Tom Nunn  Biography: Tom Nunn has designed, built and performed with original musical instruments since 1976, having received a B.Mus. and M.A. in music composition from the University of Texas at Austin and S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, and post-graduate work at U.C. San Diego. His instruments typically utilize commonly available materials, are sculptural in appearance, utilize contact microphones for amplification, and are designed specifically for improvisation with elements of ambiguity, unpredictability and nonlinearity.Tom has designed and built over 200 instruments, representing three basic types: space plates, electroacoustic percussion boards, and skatchboxes. Space plates are metal sheets with bronze rods that are bowed; the plate is supported by inflated balloons, allowing the plate to resonate. Electroacoustic percussion boards are plywood sheets with various hardware devices attached such as nails, threaded steel rods, bronze rods, combs, etc., played with a variety of small percussion implements. Skatchboxes are cardboard boxes with objects such as washers, combs, toothpicks, bronze rod, dowel, etc. taped or glued to the exterior that are played with various modified combs. All of Tom’s instruments are amplified using contact microphones and have sculptural qualities. Tom has performed extensively throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years, as well as in other parts of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and New Zealand, both as soloist and with other musicians. Tom has performed with various groups over the years and currently works with T.D. SKATCHIT, RTD3 and GHOST IN THE HOUSE. He has appeared on a number of recordings, including his solo CD, "Identity." (2007), “T.D. Skatchit & Company” (2009) and “Skatch Migration” (2010) (all on Edgetone Records). In 1998, he completed writing and self-published WISDOM OF THE IMPULSE: ON THE NATURE OF MUSICAL FREE IMPROVISATION, a book that examines various aspects of this illusive art and presents a theoretical foundation for creative listening, analysis and discussion. Tom has also written a number of articles about the use of experimental instruments and improvisation in publications such as EXPERIMENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, MUSICWORKS and LEONARDO. He was an invited participant in the Sound Symposium in St. John’s Newfoundland in 1994 and has participated several times in the annual San Francisco Bay Area Festival for People and Thingamajigs. In 2007, he was one of 10 instrument inventors invited to participate in the City of Auckland’s biannual cultural festival, AK07. In 2009, he performed with RTD3 in the Improvisers Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. Work-In-Progress: My most recent invention and related project is the Lukie Tube. Various lengths of cardboard tubes (1.75, 2 and 2.25 inches dia.) with one end cut at a slight angle are "scooted" along a 12-foot strip (7.5 inches wide) of stainless steel supported by two inflated balloons in buckets. (As are space plates, but these plates do not have rods.) The plate is sanded in various overlapping patterns with a high speed sanding disc, and it is this texture which sets the tube vibrating as it is moved along the length of the plate. The Lukie Tube is held like a pencil and pushed along the plate to produce a specific pitch, which can bend a minor second depending on the angle of the tube to the plate and the speed and pressure. These single tones can break into whole chords (and different chords for the same tube!), again, depending on speed, pressure and angle. One can elicit a tone with the very slightest and slowest movement of the tube along the plate. I currently have 2 plates, a second with less texturing (and less tendency to break into chords). I have a number of tubes from 12" to 30" or so. I can adjust the pitch(es) of a tube using a "bracelet" (a piece of the same tubing 2 or 3 inches long and slit open along the length so as to clamp over the Lukie Tube). The bracelet can be slid along the upper length of the tube to vary the pitch as much as a perfect 5th, though usually around a major or minor 3rd. The sound is highly sustained and haunting. The name is in honor of my dog, Luke, who passed away a couple weeks after I discovered these tubes.Email: tntomnunn@gmail.com Upcoming Events: Berkeley Arts 2133 University AvenueBerkeley between Shattuck & Oxford, walking distance from downtown Berkeley BART Monday, May 20 2013 8:00 PM
Tom's Place 3111 Deakin StreetBerkeley Tuesday, May 28 2013 7:30 AM
Berkeley Arts 2133 University AvenueBerkeley Sunday, Jun 2 2013 8:00 PM Pet the Tiger: Rusty Sonatas CDs on which Tom Nunn appears:
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