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Website written & produced by Ben Heaney, digital electric violinist
noise sound music ::: the violin today
This site contains Intellectual Property ::: Rights Exist ::: All Rights Reserved
Original Content Copyright © 1996-2019, Ben Heaney, Deltaviolin
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“a significant contribution” #nightshiftmagazine Dark Descended
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“he picks up a 1958 Leo Fender first model electric violin and explores the outer reaches of the instrument’s sounds, to the point it barely sounds like a violin at all. Instead, as on `Ghost Notes’, all eerie pulses, drones, swirls and a strange aural itching, it sounds like a coded distress call from a dying star, while the abrasive, atonal industrial dark ambience of `Book of Quarts’ might be Nash the Slash attempting a Steve Reich piece and deliberately getting it all mangled up. `Viktoria’, all minimalist wob, wob, wob throbbery, is perhaps too discreet to tick all our weird boxes, but `Star Cell’ is a creep back into the horror film soundtrack shadows. What’s really remarkable though is that every sound you hear is created by the violin, everything looped and overlaid and presented as the background noise to all those dreams you have about being pursued by strange wraith-like aliens in an abandoned factory. Or have we just been reading too much Victoria Schwab again?” – Demo of the Month, Nightshift Magazine (September 2017)
“taking an instrument and taking it to its furthest capabilities” #BBCIntroducing
Benedict or Ben Heaney is an artist whose work engenders unexpected reactions and often elicits an extraordinary response
“Has to be one of the most carefully constructed musical statements of any Oxford artist in 2017”
“Thought provoking. Challenging. Exacting. Ambient at times, almost intrusive at others”
“An artfully constructed whole… a significant contribution”
“I am simply amazed yet again by this work”
“It is emotionally pulverising”
“Exciting and exhilarating”
“I found it quite calming”
“The mood doesn’t lift”
“I really love that”
COLLABORATING & PERFORMING WITH GREAT WESTERN TEARS
FEATURED IN MARC CANHAM'S ORIGINAL "DANGER TREE" SOUNDTRACK
LATEST COLLABORATIONS
The Epstein, Death of the Maiden, The Great Western Tears, August List
Also, sampled by Marc Canham for the ‘The Danger Tree’ soundtrack
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The Music Health Service
“live music” Ben Heaney, 2019 Thinking out loud, throwing it out there… The following was offered at the “Coping with the Ageing Population” meeting, conducted a few weeks ago at the House of Lords examining the full value of music to UK society (http://musicinsociety.uk/) A Music Health Service funded in a different way e.g. take […]
Another Fender First, but came just about Last!
Leo Fender’s first production model Electric Violin clearly never caught on. This particular “Fender First“ vanished with little trace in 1958 Original Fender Sales Catalogue 1958-1959 (pg.12), shows the production model with ebony fingerboard Bob Wills didn’t take to it, nor did any of the other violinists said to have tried it at the time. [...]
When You First Begin To Play…
In the 1970s the new breed of violin as a fully electrified instrument was really beginning to spread but there was nothing like any good advice to be found for those interested. Some of the few violinists who were turning to an electric violin at this time even thought they were the first to do so, […]
Paganini Galás Akoluthic
The Paganini-Galás Akoluthic – researched & written by Ben Heaney (2011, revised 2017) First published by Delta Violin Ltd. 13 April 2017 ©2017, Delta Violin Ltd. All Rights Reserved This article came about as a result of public invitation by Gorgon Magazine: to make a contribution towards a monograph celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Diamanda […]
The Oldest Electric Violin In Active Service?
Fender Electric Violins Gathering Positive Attention… In the fast-growing field of the electrified bowed string there is now a voice that has been missing for much of the past six decades. Such positive reactions to it raise serious questions prompting a totally new perspective on today’s market. Deltaviolin is proud and excited to be spear-heading the unveiling […]
Electric Violin Usage
Exploring the artistic merits of electric violin Contributions Appendix Read the main article here: Turning Up The Volume ©November 2015 – March 2018, Ben Heaney Responses were given to the same four questions by the following electric violinists (hyperlinks to artist websites): Tracy Silverman (TS); Spencer C Yeh (SCY); Lindsey Stirling via PA, Jennifer Fletcher (LS); […]
Turning Up The Volume!
Turning Up The Volume! ©September 2015 – January 2017, Ben Heaney. “The electric violin is an impressively powerful instrument … a whole new orchestral equipment which the traditionalists will curse but which will undoubtedly allow future composers to give us unforeseen masterpieces, using unsuspected elements of emotions.” – Emile Vuillermoz, L’Illustration (12 April, 1930)[1] […]
Black Spot Book “Every Home Should Have One!”
Thank you for your interest in Deltaviolin’s Black Spot Book, recently described by Master of the Queen’s Music, Dame Judith Weir as “a unique and very enjoyable musical game/composition/brain trainer.” And going further to state “Every home should have one!” With copies of the luxurious hand-finished & numbered first edition now available from Blackwells and […]
Electric Violin Shop
The interest in amplified strings only gets keener… Electric Violin Shop is an independent retailer of amplified stringed instruments. They are clearly at the forefront of an industry described as unique, exciting and growing. The following information is gleaned partly from the shop’s website but also from observation dating back over ten years and direct [...]
Digital Violin & The Tipbook Company
Delighted! Continued reference to Digital Violin in the Tipbook Company’s Complete Guide Violin and Viola edition and “eTipbook Violin” by Hugo Pinksterboer . Neat, compact and to the point work. ‘Violin & Viola’ is part of “a series of accessible, handy books, eTipbooks, and apps about music and musical instruments, written in cooperation with numerous musicians and other experts” […]
A Future For Fender’s Violin
January 2016 Stradivarius is arguably the most famous name associated with violins. The name has long been synonymous with the best and most valuable violins in existence. There are just over 500 Stradivarius violins known to have survived since their maker died over 200 years ago. They are all seemingly accounted for. Fender is […]
A Musical Game
After weeks of tweaks and tedious teething trouble, Delta Violin can finally announce that copies of the first publication from Deltaviolin, Ben Heaney’s latest Black Spot Flip Book “Quarts” have safely arrived. And wow, they look COOL!! FACTS & FICTION Fact: 6 prototypes, 12 months of development and actually over 17 years since conception! Fact: There […]