Sings between the notes.

Our workshop was built in 1834 for Jacquard looms; the ceilings are four metres high so the punch-card frames would fit. Today it holds a bandsaw, a reflow oven, and a 1937 ondes Martenot we bought broken and spent two winters repairing.

Playing it changed what we wanted from a synthesizer. A keyboard gives you twelve doors per octave. Martenot’s ring and wire give you the hallway between them. ONDES-1 puts that hallway inside a modern polysynth: four analog voices you play like chords, and a ribbon you play like a cello.