Musicians Who Recycle Trash Into Playable Instruments

Great Big Story spoke with three different musicians about their passion for recycling trash and turning it into incredible instruments of their own design

First up is Ken Butler of Hybrid Visions, a prolific musician who makes amazing hybrid instruments from everyday items that he finds on the streets of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

I’m an artist and musician and known for building my own experimental instruments since 1978. I I think I’ve made around 400 instruments.

They also spoke with master piano builder David Klavins at his studio in Vác, Hungary. Klavins is known for building the tallest piano in the world.

I’m a piano builder. During my education I was told that pianos are made only one way. That’s the way you see all over the planet today and I was very dissatisfied with such an answer, of course. So I began to wonder how the piano could be improved or made different I wanted to hear the sound which I had in my head.

And finally, they spotlight Kolja Kugler of The Wild Waste Gallery in Berlin, who creates fabulous anthropomorphic punk rock robots made of recycled metal parts.

I stumbled into making robots. I was making sculptures out of scrap metal and foam, and then I started to move those moving parts with air pressure pistons. It started with a hat moving the jaw, and before I knew it I had a robot I find my scrap pretty much everywhere. I have got my eyes open all the time.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.