It is the surprising and unexpected that accompanies you at every turn in Erwin Stache's surreal world of sound. His work: a sheer overwhelming number of unique, curious sound objects and music machines: marble zither, original sound buffet, fluorescent tube sequencer, string swing, letter game, cardboard dogs, cuckoo clock organ and so much more.

Born in Bad Schlema in 1960, the inventor, sound artist, composer and object builder estranges things and gives them new uses, behind which lie a wealth of ideas and fascinating stories. In this way, they are bizarrely otherworldly, yet at the same time tangible.

Coming from a background in piano and organ, but also mathematics and physics, he develops large and small sound objects for the stage and public spaces. As diverse as his creations are, many of them still follow certain principles. First, the sound is made visible, for example when rods swing, grids open, marbles fall or surfaces are touched. What is heard thus becomes comprehensible in a vivid way and concrete in an exciting way. If the objects are interactive, operating them is already a performance out of necessity and not an artificial level.

Access to the instruments is very intuitive and playful. Producing a sound is not difficult in itself and does not require any special musical knowledge. Depending on the project, however, the instruments can also be used to develop pieces that require a high degree of expertise, thereby exploiting their full potential. Erwin Staches' sound objects skilfully embody the motto ‘easy to learn, challenging to master’ and are therefore attractive to a wide range of people with very different projects.

Almost all of Erwin Stache's works are imbued with a masterfully profound humour. The objects have something cheerful about them, sometimes very subtle, sometimes obvious, but never crude.

Erwin Stache's artistic work has been and continues to be represented at numerous renowned festivals and institutions worldwide. He also gives his own concerts and works in workshops with children, young people and adults. He founded the Atonor ensemble, which specialises in his instruments and performs throughout Europe.

Selected instruments from his collection of ingenious inventions will be available from Elaphon in the future. He is currently developing a fan object into a playable instrument for this purpose.