“A new kind of instrument that helps songwriters and musicians find what’s on their mind.”– This is how Kevin Parker‘s Telepathic instruments introduce the Orchid on their email. Apparently Tame Impala has started a synthesizer company.
As they mention in their emails it is “Kevin Parker’s instrument company”. And although we already have some information, the name and a video, we are yet to find out all the details.
As we can see, this is a chord machine with eight buttons on the left part for choosing the chord type. It covers both major and minor and even 7th and 9th chords. The OLED screen displays the chord names. Below the screen we notice a chord voicing knob. While the right half looks like a single octave keyboard with only black keys. Towards the upper part we can see the knobs – Sound, Perform, FX and Key to the left of the OLED screen. Towards the right we have Bass, Loop, BPM, Options and Volume knob. From the looks, we can guess it is a digital instrument, much similar to a compact modern version of the Bontempi organ.
As soon as the Telepathic Instruments Instagram channel dropped, fans kept speculating what this was all about. Most of them guessed it as Kevin’s new album with all the right reasons. Some even thought of a bitcrusher pedal given the pixelated images and the bitcrushed audio in the videos.
Also read: The Vongon Replay: A Minimalist Synth That Takes Things too Far?
So did Tame Impala launch a synthesizer company?
The answer seems to be YES. More so because of a recent post where Kevin seems to be playing the Orchid which looks like an actual telepathic instrument. We can hear the sound being a very orchestral dreamy yet bold kind, maybe a mellower version of the Omnichord. We are guessing that is one of the effects.
Even the bio of the telegraphic instruments page reads: An electronic instruments company founded by @tameimpala and friends.
The website is black with following words written in white which appear at the center asking, “Are you listening?” Then when you enter your email ID in the space provided it goes, “We’ll be in touch soon. You’ll know it when you hear it.” The bare minimum information reveal hints how they want you to keep guessing, no doubt.
Kevin Parker’s love for synths is very much understandable from how his sound has evolved over the years, getting more towards the electronic elements and psychedelia. Since Kevin has previously talked about his love for synths like the analogue Sequential Pro-One or the software synth Roland JV-1080, we can also guess it will be something along the lines of a retro style synthesizer. Whether we take the hint about the sound from the demo videos or Tame Impala’s own sound is the question. Maybe we need to wait a little more.
Hopefully this means their next album will take some time, but who can be sure?
