Just a quick break from harp guitars so I can finish that short story about Trent Reznor…

As you recall, last October Trent and associates stopped by to rent some unusual instruments for an upcoming video shoot (a project that I couldn’t then mention, lest his rabid fans twitter me to distraction).  As I explained on the original blog, Trent wasn’t in the market for harp guitars, he was looking instead for oddball dulcimer or zither-y things (to film to pre-recorded playback).   The sample he played on his iPhone to give me a sense of what he was looking for was quite cool.  By the way, Trent, with Atticus Ross – also a part of this project – did the scores for the last two David Fincher films.

Being mainly a keyboard guy (his manager said he is a classically-trained pianist), Trent naturally gravitated toward the Dolceola – half piano, half zither.  He decided to go with a couple of different choices for Atticus to look at (including the above dulcimer-like scheitholt, and below, Finnish kantele).

To my left, part of Trent’s technical crew, Dustin Mosley and Jun Murakawa.  All 3 guys were super nice, and appreciative museum visitors.  I couldn’t wait to see what they did with these, though hoping nothing too dark and disturbing with the Dolceola (as Trent’s musical reputation preceded him…).

I’ll let you be the judge, as “Ice Age” is now out.

Atticus ended up using something else (an industrial-looking Harmolin, which I don’t own), though you can’t really i.d. it in the video.  The Dolceola makes a few brief appearances as a sort of miniature “prepared piano.”

Pretty interesting, and fun to be part of video history!