I met Benji Bower last week. He plays the staggering collection of instruments below to provide his live one man soundtrack to Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves show at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Taken with permission. (The show is highly recommended (by me) btw although my nephew only enjoyed it "middle".)
From the programme: "Benji is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is a founding member of Unforscene and UFS productions. Theatre credits include: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Bristol Old Vic), Aesop's Fables, Stickman (Scamp Theatre), Strange Case (Bristol Old Vic / Pervasive Media), Ugly Duckling (Tobacco Factory), City of One, Jolity Farm (Myrtle Theatre), TV credits as composer include Colut of a Suicide Bomber (Channel 4), Cmonics Britannia, Rude Britain (BBC4), Blown Apart (BBC2). As Unforscene: Sulston Connection, Pacific Heights, New World Disorder (Kudos), Fingers and Thumbs (Tru Thoughts)."
The fascinating looking spiky thing to the right of the photo is a waterphone.
"The Waterphone was invented and is patented by Richard Waters (pat.#3896696). Each instrument is unique and made to order. Richard personally makes, tunes, signs and dates each Waterphone. The sound of the Waterphone has been compared to the haunting melodies of the Humpback Whale and voices from inner/outer space. Waterphones have been described as acoustic synthesizers, Waterharps, a musical “Aladdin's Lamp”, and “Whalephones”."
The ongoing competition page includes recordings of what people can do with it that are definitely worth listening to.
"9 Countries was recorded on location in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Tibet, India, Egypt and Greece between October 2005 and March 2007 by Tom Compagnoni. What you hear has been entirely assembled from these field recordings, no additional samples used. "Recorded, edited, mixed, re-mixed, mashed and mastered by Tom Compagnoni 2005-2009"