SYNTH WEEK 2024: The work of Sweden’s Love Hultén combines analogue synths, mid-century mechanical items, a leaf from Dieter Rams’s book of functional design and a hefty dose of whimsy to craft beautifully strange one-off instruments designed to inspire as much with their interfaces as with their sonics.
Whether its The Singer; the combination of two Moog Mother-32s with a Strymon Magneto, a musical keyboard and three toy Singer sewing machines whose clacking provide a charming percussive accompaniment; Pink Lab, a Pittsburgh Modular Taiga, Hologram Microcosm and Arturia Keystep outfitted with a custom mechanical disk sequencer and finished in bright pink, or even Sebastian; the mechanical crab whose pincers and legs move with the press of the keys of a customised Korg Volca FM2 — to name but three of the nearly 100 inspiring and out-there projects currently in his portfolio — it’s safe to say that Love Hultén’s creative mind is free of the shackles of plastic faceplates and faux-wooden end panels.
