Um, wow! Sound designer and composer Diego Stocco says:

In the garden of my house there’s a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it.

To tune the tree I picked a fundamental note and tuned the twigs by trimming them with a pencil sharpener. I used two R?ɬ?de NT6 and a NTG-2 as microphones, combined with a customized stethoscope.

I recorded the tracks live on a Pro Tools LE system. I didn’t use any synthesizer or sampler to create or modify the sounds. All the sounds come from playing the tree, by bowing the twigs, shaking the leaves, playing rhythms on the cortex and so on.

Photos and a more detailed description here

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting J?ɬ?n S?ɬ¶mundur Audarson in Reykjavik, Iceland (after the economy collapsed, but before the government did). J?ɬ?n runs a clothing line called DEAD out of his storefront and studio tucked just off Laugavegur, Reykjavik’s main drag. His clothing line is great stuff, often featuring his logo?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùa skull surrounded by the mantra “He who fears death cannot fully enjoy life” in one of several languages. I bought one in Sanskrit. He just opened a storefront in New York, as well, and his clothing has popped up in the least likely of places?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùon Quentin Tarantino, for instance, who is a fan. Check out this Dazed Digital profile of him, and his MySpace, which is loaded down with his music as well?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùhe has recorded with the likes of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and performed at the Glastonbury Festival.

Diagnosed with HIV in 1994, Audarson has become furiously prolific. His studio, which he graciously gave me a tour of, is something like a Tibetan lama’s temple crossed with the coolest punk you know’s jam space. It’s littered with skulls, ravens and copious reproductions of J?ɬ?n’s logo, which he considers a “thought virus” which he wants to seed the world with, even going so far as to consider worldwide hot-air balloon trips flashing the logo.

Check him out in the above video performing “Golden - Frost” with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which he contributed to their recent My Bloody Underground album. His screed against hypocrisy and greed is in Icelandic, but the message comes across clear in any language.

I couldn’t find much information on German group New Production Goes to Munich’s 1987 hit “Tippen Ein”.  For all you Tim and Eric fans out there, I think you’ll really love this twisted synthpop masterpiece. Genius.

Here’s a link to a live version of “Tippen Ein”