The Dresher/Davel Invented Instrument Duo

Performing live on a pair of huge invented musical instruments, the Duo of acclaimed composer, performer & instrument inventor Paul Dresher and percussionist-extraordinaire Joel Davel consistently generates excitement and wonder!

Playing the 15-foot Quadrachord or the 10-foot Hurdy Grande, both controlled by Don Buchla’s magical Marimba Lumina, Dresher and Davel create lush textures and rhythmically propulsive grooves that fascinate the ear and the eye. Exploring unique sound-colors amplified by live digital looping, this electro-acoustic duo creates complex sonic layers as rich as a full orchestra.

Audiences are sonically immersed and visually overwhelmed both by the sight and sound of these sculptural inventions as by the energetic and imaginative ways Dresher and Dave interact with them physically.

With 14-foot steel strings, the Quadrachord (below) resembles an over-sized guitar lying reclining. Not to be underestimated, although it can be plucked like a guitar, it can also be bowed like a cello, played like a slide guitar, or banged like a drum.

Hurdy Grande, in contrast, which has seven 10-foot strings that are mechanically bowed by a motorized wheel, can also make a vast array of different sound, sounding alternately like a bowed violin or cello, a harp, or even a percussion instrument. In the hands of just a single player, the Hurdy Grande can generate more layers of contrasting sounds than any other acoustic instrument yet created.

The Dresher/Davel duo has performed to enthusiastic audiences across the US and in Australia. Concerts have been performed at Disney Hall (opening for the LA Philharmonic), Carnegie/Zankel Hall, Bard College, Detroit Institute of Art, Symphony Space, UT Austin, the Bowling Green Festival of New American Music, the Sydney Conservatorium and the Canberra International Music Festival in Australia.

A bonus to all the Dresher/Davel’s concert is that after each performance, the audience is invited up on stage to explore the instruments and to talk with the two artists.