Most of the world has no idea who Trimpin is, and he'd just as soon keep it that way. But the longtime Seattle resident, who legally shortened his name from Gerhard Trimpin, has quietly made a name for himself by inventing a whole lot of noisy things.
Whether using a reed organ fueled by fire or a 50-foot tower of automated guitars, Trimpin has devoted decades to expanding the boundaries of timbre, tempo, and tendency in music. By inventing elaborate instruments as well as crafting mechanisms that allow the instruments to play themselves, Trimpin's devices routinely create soundscapes that are beyond the realm of human proficiencies.
So when filmmaker Peter Esmonde was granted permission to document the very withdrawn aural alchemist at work, he captured something every bit as elusive as Trimpin's inventions are extraordinary. Esmonde's spellbinding feature Trimpin: The Sound Of Invention will screen at Scottsdale's SMoCA Lounge.
Thu., June 14, 7:30 p.m., 2012
