Episode 31 Intonarumori

January 1, 2026

The First Noise Instrument

The 100-Year Noise Instrument; Martyn Simpson's Experiments

📍 Leighton Buzzard, UK

If you're interested in buying these instruments, or want to commission Martyn to make you any other interesting noise machines, you can email him at: RobertMartynSimpson at Gmail.com

And you can read more about his noise journeys at his blog: https://martyn-simpson.blogspot.com/ 

Thoughts and Reflections

My journey for discovering this instrument was a tongue-in-cheek video I made when Luigi Mangione (the alleged healthcare CEO killer) was going viral. I was searching for any other famous music-instrument adjacent figures in history named Luigi, and discovered Luigi Russolo, the Italian Futurist who invented these machines. I was quite surprised about these crazy instruments, but also some of the similarities between both Luigis. Regardless, in my further research, I discovered a number of modern-makers of this instrument, and among them, Martyn Simpson, who out of all of the modern builders out there, had the most documentation of his process. I happened to be in the area a few months later, when I got a chance to meet up with Martyn. 

Martyn was a little worried about being featured in my series, compared to what he saw as more established luthiers. However, I told him, and I proudly continue to make my pledge here that... Since the beginning of my channel, I had aimed to feature a diverse amount of instrument makers: everybody from any culture, from beginners to professionals, from individuals to massive factories. Or in Martyn's case, a visual artist with a passion for exploring noise machines. Regardless, these videos are stories about fascinating people; while the instrument shines through them.

Our meeting was fortuitous for the both of us. For me, to finally get a peek under the hood of these instruments. And for him, because after almost 2 decades going down this rabbit hole, he was ready to close the book on Intonarumori, both mentally and physically. It pushed him to finish the fourth instrument, get it performed, and hopefully sell them off (for the sake of storage space).