The London design firm Based Upon, founded by Alan Welch and brothers Ian and Richard Abell, has been involved with everything from the creation of monumental public artwork in London, New York, Hong Kong, and Mumbai, to collaborations with luxury icons like Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Tiffany & Co. Based Upon has a particular affinity for pianos, a subject of its focus for more than a dozen years.
The traditional acoustic piano (think Steinway) has provided an impetus for a number of Based Upon’s one-off grand-piano commissions, as well as forays into smaller versions, like an edition of five pianos called The Baby, designed in partnership with Steinway & Sons. Yet its Twist/D is a whole new take on an instrument that can be traced back to an ancestor invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700, and that contraption progressed to become the most influential and significant instrument in Western music—the piano.
Replacing the harpsichord’s plucked strings for those excited by little hammers, Cristofori’s creation allowed musicians to control the volume of their instrument, opening up avenues of expression impossible in the era of wheezing cabinet organs and tinkling claviers. (Not that J. S. Bach need apologise for composing the greatest keyboard music in history). The Twist/D is Based Upon’s first “autonomous piano,” a sculptural form embodying the touch, feel, and sonic signature of a fine grand piano, but with sounds rendered digitally instead of with conventional strings.
According to its designers, the Twist/D has a shape inspired by proportions of the Golden Spiral, expressed in a gradated colourway of blue and white. A unique finish called Tramazite, a proprietary material developed by the design house, provides complementary accents to the metal components.
The monumental form of the Twist/D belies its versatile, almost chameleon-like functionality. Under the lid, there are no strings to move the air, but rather speakers that create an uncanny simulacrum of a grand piano. And here, things get interesting. Twelve computer-modelled Steinway and Bechstein pianos from various eras have been sampled, creating an array of tonal qualities that have been fastidiously replicated to create an authentic experience for the musician and audience alike.
The sound itself comes from an in-house-designed audio system comprising six equalized transducers and one subwoofer that resonate from the lid; bass notes emanate from the left while top octaves are from the right. From the keyboard and at the pedals, hammer action emulates the feel of the iconic grand pianos that inform the Twist/D design.
Players select not just the sound of the instrument, but the environmental setting in which they wish to perform. This is accomplished by reverb functions that emulate geographic locations. For instance, reverb recordings were sampled across the elevated and subterranean landscape of the Isle of Skye.
The Twist/D, which starts at £150,000 (approximately HK$1.5 million at the current exchange rate), is a complicated instrument that affords composers and keyboard artists a vast field of exploration and inquiry. Those not so compositionally inclined may simply want an exquisite instrument as the centrepiece of a music salon. Explaining the design brief informing the project, Based Upon’s cofounder Welch explains, “We set out to create a work that marries sculptural beauty with the feel of a world-class piano.”
