Baschet brothers, sound creators

Nicolas Bras Cordophones, Idiophones, Unclassifiable 0

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Bernard and François Baschet

François Baschet (1920-2014) and Bernard Baschet (1917-2015), who had recently disappeared, were two french musical instruments creators that revolutionized acoustics and instrumental building, using unique sound transmission methods.

François Baschet‘s first creation was an inflatable guitar, more practical to travel.

The Cristal Baschet

They worked in the fifties on an instrumental family based on a vibrating stem fixed in a Dural base, whose vibration is diffused by one or more pavilions. These stems can be struck, rubbed or played with a glass bow : the Cristal Baschet was born.

The two brothers split the project, François Baschet travel all over the world for exhibitions, installations and performances of all kind, Bernard Baschet stays in his workshop to perfect the Crystal:

The Baschet Instrumentarium

By observing the children’s reactions to their creations, they start the development of instruments for educational use, the Baschet instrumentarium.

Here are some personal photos of Bernard Baschet‘s workshop, which I had the chance to meet, I hope to be able to return and complete this article with videos and more documents!