Composer & synthesist Robin Rimbaud shared this brief demo of using the books of John Cage as a MIDI controller to trigger prepared piano samples.

Here’s what he has to say about it:

“As a huge admirer of the work and writings of American composer John Cage, I thought it would be interesting to combine some of my book collection with the definitive sound of his prepared piano, played live on the books themselves.

It’s certainly not an impressive piece of music here, and know that it sounds more like someone tuning a piano, but goodness, what fun it is to physically play anything at hand! And you can marvel at how one of the books in particular just wanted to slip away!

Here’s what Rimbaud shared about the technical details:

The Playtron MIDI controller from Playtronica gives you the chance to play pretty much anything. Using alligator clips, you can connect up to 16 objects that can conduct electricity. You might have seen videos of people playing plants or fruit for example. However, if you use conductive copper tape you can also attach this to anything you like and still play them as if a musical instruments.