Reactable

In 2011 I was honoured to be asked to be musical director for Björks Biophilia tour. One of the instruments I had the privilege of using was the Reactable . This is a visually driven digital modular synth and certainly one of the most interesting electronic instruments I have used. It can be configured to do all sorts of clever things, but I was using it to trigger samples and process them, and also to send signals to Björks fabulous musical Tesla coil! The Tesla coil has an audio input, and so if you send it an audio wave, it converts that wave into a pitched electrical discharge – well…. a lightning bolt that plays a tune. It’s incredibly loud, and looks amazing.

Gunter at Reactable was a HUGE help in setting up the instrument for the tour, and made lots of tweaks in the software so that we could use it in different ways in the show. There is a mobile app version of the software available which is a lot of fun!