**** Various Artists

GRAVIKORDS, WHIRLIES, AND PYROPHONES

(Ellipsis)

This handsome book-and-CD package celebrates experimental musical instruments, their inventors, and the strange and beautiful sounds they make. These musicians' pursuit of individuality and novelty has yielded substantial music that's more than simply outrageous or obscure. The CD offers 18 examples ranging from the high-tech to the homespun. Tracks include unnerving bestial snorks from Hans Reichel's daxophone and alien burbling from Susan Rawcliffe's water flutes and howlers. At the other end of the spectrum, there's the melodious tinkling of the flowerpotophone (made of exactly what you'd think). Examples of pioneering musical-instrument maker Harry Partch and theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore are included for historical perspective. There's a hilarious version of "New York, New York" played on a car-horn organ (25 automobile horns that are honked via standard piano keyboard). And lest you think experimental instruments are strictly for the new-music elite, there's a dance track from Sugar Belly, a Jamaican musician who played mento (a precursor of reggae) on a bamboo saxophone of his own invention.

-- Ed Hazell