In 2015, I started developing my experimental percussion solo project, simultaneously beginning the first embryonic tests with what would become the Drummophone. Through the creative path of improvisation and iterative cycles of design and experimentation, I developed this system that allows me to treat the drum as an aerophone, initially with breath (like a wind instrument) and later with electric blowers (like an organ).
What began as an experimental project gradually became a long-term relationship, a continuous negotiation between me and the instrument. The instrument is called Drummophone (with two “m”s), because it started as a solo project and I took inspiration from the word drummer rather than drum.
The explorations of Tatsuya Nakatani, Andrew Drury, and Jean-François Laporte's work with unconventional sound production on membranes with airflow served as foundational inspirations for developing the Drummophone.
The Drummophone was presented in 2017 at Tempo Reale, one of the most important research centers for contemporary music in Europe, within a festival dedicated to new instruments. This presentation marked a significant landmark, contextualizing the instrument within the professional field of experimental organology and contemporary music.
What is the Drummophone?e
As of December 2025 - I am currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Musical Performance at the Conservatories of Pesaro, Udine, Ferrara and Trieste, conducting practice-based research on the Drummophone through organological mapping, performance practice systematization, and the development of new prototypes. What the instrument is, is one of the main research themes of my PhD. The Hornbostel-Sachs system is the most widely used for classifying sound-instruments, organizing them into five major categories: idiophones, chordophones, aerophones, membranophones and electrophones. This classification satisfies day-to-day requirements but, as the Drummophone demonstrates, it reveals the limitations of rigid categorical boundaries.
Drums are membranophones, instruments equipped with a stretched membrane that is made to vibrate, with either indefinite pitch or definite pitch.
An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate: the air itself is the vibrator in the primary sense.
Under the membranophones section, the closest classification for the Drummophone is "241, Free Kazoos: the membrane is incited directly, without the wind first passing through a chamber". Free Kazoos are considered membranophone instruments in which the membrane is vibrated by the unbroken column of wind generated while speaking, and without a chamber.
Since most (but not all) classification systems are static and depend upon sharply-drawn demarcations and categories, as proved by the fact that the kazoo is brought in close proximity to the snare drum, the Drummophone exists in a liminal space between categories—a hybrid instrument that challenges traditional organological boundaries.
So, what is the Drummophone?
It consists of a folded up small cymbal with convex instead of concave shape, with a regular bell, to which a tube is attached through its central hole. When placed on top of a drum, only the circumference of the bell touches the drum skin. This allows the pressure of the air that flows into the tube—either injected pneumatically or blown by the musician—to make the membrane of the drum vibrate and resonate.
While using it, it's possible to obtain acoustic drones, melodies and complex beats that drastically distance the instrument from traditional drumming and gestures. The vibrations generated on the drum skins through air pressure create a complex texture of harmonics, beatings and pure acoustic resonances that layer in the air. It is actually possible to play chords and tune pitches precisely, finding the right euphonic resonances in each space.
John Cage said that percussion music is a contemporary transition from keyboard-influenced music to the all-sound music of the future. There's a crystal-clear relation between this statement and the Drummophone, especially when working with pneumatic forces, obtaining an organ-like sound out of drums.
2015-2019: Breath and Body
During the first phase of development, I focused on building a technical vocabulary using breath—exploring circular breathing, arpeggios on the drum skin, slap techniques, and various preparations of the instrument. This phase revealed the timbral possibilities but also the inherent challenges: the instrument's physical configuration makes stable intonation difficult to achieve, and technical constraints made it complex to reason at harmonic and melodic levels in traditional terms. The direct connection between body, breath, and sound generated embodied knowledge about processes of control and surrender in relation to pitch instability. This phase was characterized by an intimate, performative relationship with the instrument.
From 2019: Motors and Installation
The integration of motors to generate airflow radically transformed the practice. This approach liberated the performance from the central role of the player, opening towards the installative dimension and sound art. The intonation became "aural and site-responsive," improvised live and transformed into collective exploration of sound, architecture, and movement.
This shift allowed me to widen the listening point and question the role of the performer as listener in relation to the audience. Adding distance from the instrument brings the performer closer to the listener's perspective, rather than remaining solely in the player's role.
Collaborations with composers Anthony Pateras and Philip Corner, alongside improvisers John Butcher, Lê Quan Ninh, Axel Dörner, Chris Corsano, and Ingar Zach, have provided crucial feedback on the instrument's evolution, exposing both fragilities and necessities, continuously pushing me to rethink the approach to live experience.
My current practice-based research aims to systematically document the Drummophone's organological characteristics, map pitch production on drum membranes through airflow excitation, and develop transferable methodologies for performance and pedagogy. This work seeks to transform eleven years of individual artistic practice into shared, documented knowledge—making the instrument accessible beyond my personal practice while continuing to explore its sonic and expressive territories.
A given note may sound in diverse ways, even when it comes from the same type of instrument. What we actually hear is a blend of numerous ingredients, and we can thus understand that the manufacture of a musical instrument is a highly specialized practice. Equally important is the player whose years of training and education enable control of an often unruly instrument.
One way to approach playing music is to choose one instrument and study the repertoire developed over decades or centuries. This is not the case with a new instrument: we have to define a vocabulary and build a language in order to make music with it, to interact with other musicians, and to let composers understand how it works. This ongoing process of discovery, documentation, and transmission is at the heart of my work with the Drummophone.