Yuri Landman

Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese, Liam Finn, and Laura-Mary Carter.

Besides his musical activities he is also a graphic novel artist.

Yuri Landman started as a comic book artist and made his debut in the comics field in 1997 with 'Je Mag Alles Met Me Doen' (in Dutch).

Together with Cees van Appeldoorn, he formed the lo-fi band Zoppo playing bass and prepared guitar in 1997.

In the follow-up, released in 1998, 'Het Verdiende Loon', Landman described his negative experiences on a daily job.

For the second title he received the 1998 Breda Prize, an award for rising new comic artists in the Netherlands.

Since then he has published no other comic books.

Soon after the release he took over a local comic book store and started his graphic design studio inside the shop besides the sales of comics.

After 2 albums and several 7" singles, Landman left the band in 2000. Landman then formed the noise band Avec Aisance (aka Avec-A) with drummer/producer Valentijn Höllander and released a CD, Vivre dans l'aisance in 2004. After quitting Avec-A in 2006, he focused mainly on instrument building. His comic shop closed in 2001 and he was the graphic designer for Oog & Blik from 2001 till 2010, until the instrument business became his full-time activity.

Landman is musically untrained and cannot play chords.

Unsatisfied about the limitations of prepared guitars Landman began creating and building several experimental string instruments, including electric zithers, electric Cymbalum, and electric Koto.

Many of the designs are focused on string resonance, microtonality and an overtoning spectra based on the no wave aesthetics of Glenn Branca and the microtonal consonant theory developed by Harry Partch.

In the period between 2000 and 2005, Landman created nine prototype instruments.

In 2006 he changed his musical focus and stopped to perform and start building for other bands.

The Moodswinger was the first instrument Landman made for the band Liars.

After the Moodswinger, he started making more instruments for other bands as well.

From November 2006 to January 2007 Landman finished two copies of The Moonlander, a biheaded electric 18-string drone guitar, one for Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and one for himself.

The Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs.

The first prototype of this instrument, created in 2008, was made for guitar player Laura-Mary Carter of Blood Red Shoes.

Afterwards he also made copies for Lou Barlow and dEUS' Mauro Pawlowski.

For John Schmersal of Enon he built the Twister guitar, an alternate version of the Springtime.

In 2009 he finished instruments for The Dodos, Liam Finn, HEALTH, Micachu and Finn Andrews of The Veils.

For The Dodos and Finn he created electric 24 string drum guitars called the Tafelberg and for Andrews an electric 17-string harp guitar called the Burner guitar.

He also started to perform again after a Perpignan Festival hosted by Vincent Moon and Gaspar Claus.

Meanwhile, he continued to build instruments for artists such as These Are Powers, Women and Kate Nash.

For his own musical career he develops a 25-meter electric long-string instrument, often featured at his performances.

Besides his output as an inventor and noise musician, he starts to focus on music education, and participatory art.

At first Landman started giving musicological lectures at venues, festivals and music related educational institutes.

Landman published the essay 3rd Bridge Helix - From Experimental Punk to Ancient Chinese Music & the Universal Physical Laws of Consonance in which he clarifies the relation between this prepared guitar technique and the consonant values present in non-Western scales, especially the musical scale used on the Ancient Chinese musical instrument the guqin.

He published an extensive 8 chapter guide on how to prepare a guitar, that was later transformed to the book Nice Noise.

His lectures and presentations with his instruments prompted a request in 2009 for a practical building workshop.

This gave rise to his Home Swinger project, which allowed people to participate in DIY workshops where they could build their own copy of his newly created instrument the Home Swinger.

Often this was followed by a rehearsal and ensemble performance, with multiple copies of the Home Swinger, drums, basses, and guitars, in the style of the Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca compositions.

Events took place throughout all European countries and the US.

The Home Swinger was selected as one of the instruments for the second Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, in February 2010.

Along with the Moodswinger, this instrument is included in the permanent collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

Soon after the start of the Home Swinger workshops his job as a teacher/artistbecame a full-time activity with an ongoing tour schedule throughout the whole year.

He developed a wide of range of workshops with different kinds of instruments, and created this way thousands of DIY kalimbas, triochords, plates with crossed strings, and mallet guitars.

Due to the ongoing tour schedule with the DIY-instrument projects, he discontinued the production of his high-end products for bands, although he makes exceptions such as developing a 42-stringed instrument for Peter James Taylor; nine instruments for Belgian composer Serge Verstockt; instruments for befriended acts such as Lau Nau, Tomoko Sauvage, Hifi Club, Remko Scha, Ritornel, Katharine Klement, Killed by 9V Batteries and Ex-Easter Island Head; and an instrument for the SONS Museum in 2011.

Because of his touring with the workshops he connects more to the experimental music scene, performing with acts such as Jad Fair, Rhys Chatham, Wu Fei, Noël Akchoté, Action Beat, Dustin Wong (ex Ponytail), Camera,and others.