Awesome Theremin

We know from our past encounters with musician Carolina Eyck that she’s one of the world’s greatest theremin players. In this clip, she amps up the pace to that of a buzzing insect with a captivating performance of Flight of the Bumblebee on the gesture-driven electronic instrument.

The latest Moog theremin has a five-octave range and improved bass response. It can also be used as a pitch, volume, and gate controller for modular synthesizers. It has a hardwood cabinet and quick-release brass-plated antennas, and can produce some amazing sounds – as demonstrated by The Octopus Project.

Composer Joe Hisaishi’s score from Howl’s Moving Castle is beautiful and emotive. While it sounds great on piano and violin, we’re absolutely smitten with this ethereal cover version of the track Merry Go Round of Life, performed by Grégoire Blanc on the theremin and Anna and Arek of GlassDuo on the glass harp.

At NYC’s MoMA, composer Dorit Chrysler used the movements of iconic Calder mobiles to control Theremins, musical instruments played without physical contact. As the metal sculptures moved, they produced sounds by affecting the electromagnetic fields of the Theremins, resulting in a musical “collaboration.”

French musician Grégoire Blanc brings his own unique flair to the 1973 Pink Floyd classic “The Great Gig in the Sky” with a soul-stirring cover performed on the highly-expressive Haken Continuum, a vintage Elektor Formant modular synth, grand piano, and a theremin taking on Clare Torry’s famous vocals.

We always thought The Beatles’ track Because a trippy and haunting tune to begin with, so it’s no wonder that the otherworldly sounds of the theremin suit the song so perfectly, especially in the capable hands of Cihan Gulbudak, one of the true masters of the unusual electronic instrument.

Musician Cihan Gulbudak turns in an epic performance of Radiohead’s 1997 hit Paranoid Android using a theremin to replace the main vocal track. The spooky alien sounds suit the song just perfectly. Be sure to check out his cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop too.

This video was posted way back in 2009, but we never saw it before, so we figured some of you guys missed it too. So sit back and enjoy as musician Peter Pringle plays an oddly soothing rendition of Somewhere over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz.

Musician Randy George created this clip more than a decade ago, performing the most unusual cover version we’ve ever heard of Gnarls Barkley’s hit tune Crazy – using a theremin in place of the lead vocals. Given the title and subject matter of the song, it’s somehow fitting.