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Japanese musical group Electronicos Fantasticos! (aka Nicos) was created in 2015 by artist and musician Ei Wada as an artistic project to make musical instruments from obsolete appliances.
The group now comprises more than 70 members and has engineered more than 15 instruments from old technologies. Electronicos Fantasticos! and Ei Wada have performed around the world at concerts, galleries, and fashion shows.
Wada got candid about his love for bringing instrumental life to old appliances, his inspirations, and his new projects.
Lizzy Zarrello: Before starting Electronicos Fantasticos!, did you have any mechanical skills or training in technology?
Ei Wada: I haven’t received any specialized training in technology. But ever since I was a child, I’d pick up broken machines or devices and take them apart. My first experience with electronics was when, as a child, I made a germanium radio, the simplest radio that doesn’t require batteries. I can still remember the surprise I felt when I could hear a faint broadcast from the device I had made, and thinking, “There is an invisible sound floating in the air.” I felt like there was a code lurking in the universe, and technology was the magic that allowed me to look into
it when I put my fingernail into the groove of a spinning record and heard a faint sound, or when I dropped a cassette tape in water and the sound it played back became soggy. My personal technical skills aren’t so high, but I have been fascinated by these feelings for many years and have been playing with machines.
LZ: How did you discover refurbishing old electrical appliances into electromagnetic instruments?
EW: One day, I put the cable connected to a guitar amplifier inside my sock instead of a guitar jack and found that my body itself became an electric pickup. When I touched the screen of a CRT TV in this state, static electricity rang out as a blasting noise. Further experiments revealed that the number of stripes on the screen changed the wavelength of the electricity and thus the pitch of the sound. I found myself tapping the CRT TV. I discovered that it could be a kind of percussion instrument. This was around 2011. At that time, CRT TVs were destined to be thrown away in large numbers after analog broadcasting ended in Japan. But in my world, CRT TVs were reincarnated as electromagnetic drums and began their acrobatic second life. From there, I began to wonder, “If it can pick up electrical signals from any electrical appliances, could they become musical instruments? Could I pick up their voices?” More than 15 kinds of instruments were born from camcorders, radios, fans, air conditioners, telephones… I call them electromagnetic instruments.
LZ: What inspired you to create Electronicos Fantasticos!?
EW: A producer who’s been involved in my musical activities for many years started a nonprofit organization [Topping East by Ryouichi Kiyomiya] and started to work on expanding what music and art can do in the city. I was invited to participate in this initiative, and with the participation of various kinds of people, the project Electronicos Fantasticos! was launched on an experimental basis.
The first step was to set up a base in a corner of Tokyo and collect old appliances that were no longer needed. Neighbors heard the rumors and gave away old appliances they didn’t need anymore. As we disassembled home appliances, unraveled their mechanisms, and explored their potential, we discovered that they could produce unexpected sounds. Eventually, it became a community of engineers who work for home appliance manufacturers during day, as well as designers, musicians, etc. We have about 70 members gathered in three cities in Japan, exchanging fantasies and technologies day and night as they continue to create “home appliance instruments.” Our goal is to realize an “electrical, electronic, and electromagnetic strange festival.”
“I would like to create a strange festival of electromagnetic punk.”
LZ: How do you find inspiration for your projects?
EW: I have always been strongly inspired by native instruments that are electrified and electronic in many countries around the world: human- powered techno music with the electric kalimba from the Republic of Congo; Arabic scale psychedelic rock with electric saz from Turkey; dance music for ordained ministry with electric phins in rural northern Thailand, and so on.
Japan became an industrialized country that mass-produced electrical 34 appliances after the post-war economic growth. I continue to fantasize that if electric native instruments in the modern city were to be created, old home appliances could become them.
LZ: What started the creation of Barcode Boarding?
EW: I tried connecting the barcode reader’s electrical signal directly to a speaker instead of a cash register and found that it made a sound. From this, the “barcoder”—a musical instrument that makes sounds from all the stripes in the world—was born. One day, as I was watching a skateboarder skating across a crosswalk, the image of a skater sliding over a giant barcode and making a sound spread through my brain.
This spring, I had the opportunity to realize this idea by participating in the Kitakyushu Art Festival. In this area, where skateboarding culture is popular, I met some local skateboarders and we hit it off. After a series of experi- ments with barcode readers attached to skateboards, Barcode-Boarding appeared in the real world. This is a style of skating and making sounds that uses barcodes that were originally created only for product management.
LZ: You have provided music for brands like Issey Miyake. What other brands do you hope to collaborate with?
EW: We’ve found through CRT TVs, camcorders, and barcode readers that stripes can be made into sound. We believe that wearing stripes is wearing sound. We can say that striped clothes are our native costumes. I would like to collaborate in some way with a fashion brand that specializes in striped patterns!
LZ: What do you hope to do next with Nicos?
EW: Nowadays, old home appli- ances can be found everywhere in the world. I imagine that we can share our idea of home appliance instruments and how to make them, and create an electromagnetic orchestra without borders, starting with making instruments out of old home appliances. I would like to create a strange festival of electromagnetic punk, chemical reactions between the home appliances of various regions, and the culture rooted in those regions.
All images courtesy of Electronicos Fantasticos!
