- FIRE - METAL - WOOD - WATER - AIR
custom instruments and artworks
for music, meditation, relaxation, ritual, soundscape, and art
From the elements of this earth can come sounds of heaven.
Whether you consider there to be five elements, as Chinese civilization has seen things for thousands of years, or whether you gravitate towards the four traditional elements of European memory, Gaia Tone Instruments is a place where it all comes together to create something altogether different. You could almost call artisan Massimo Pintus an alchemist.
Earth Offerings
Pintus offers a stunning range of one-of-a-kind musical instruments and musical artworks. A unique guitarist and guitar teacher, Werbeck Singing Method vocal teacher, musical improvisation adept, and community music-maker, Massimo is also a skilled and powerfully imaginative woodworker and metalworker. At his home forge and workshop in the beautiful Cowichan Valley on southern Vancouver Island, he creates:
- three-dimensional sculptures incorporating sound for the garden, home, and workplace, designed to be ‘played’ passively by the elements, or also to be played actively by a musician or any human adventurer: anything is posible
- gongs of all sizes
- gong gates and frames: hand-worked wooden and metal structural settings to hang larger gongs, tam tams, and plates
- tam tams
- plates: square and rectangular gongs
- glockenspiels
- triangles
- finger cymbals
- rods, which are solid metal hanging instruments
- tubular bells, hollow cylindrical hanging metal instruments
- metal and wooden wind chimes
Playing With Fire
In his forge on his working farm acreage on the edge of small-town Duncan, Pintus works in iron, copper, and bronze. Elemental iron and copper both have a sonic resonance that’s readily available when manipulated and formed with attention. The two are very different from each other and deeply affect Pintus in his labors. Where iron (associated with Mars) makes sounds that seem to go far out into the cosmos and return from that vast space, copper (aligned with Venus) is embracing and bound to our planet, and its sounds seem to circle down and around us.
Massimo clarifies that these are the original qualities he finds at the first step of his creative journeys in the forge. All the choices he makes - from size to the many impulses and judgements made while working the material - determine the piece’s pitch and the flavor and impact of its sound. working with iron is enlivening - strengthening
working with copper - it’s malleable and soft - but it takes a lot of energy, you need to soften it with heat
Labor of Love
The source of Pintus’ impulse to begin forming a piece is clarity of mind and warmth of heart. “I want my instruments to be healing. I bring a loving mood to the instrument, while hammering it on the anvil. It looks like a contrast, but it is not. It’s vigorous but loving.”
Massimo actively cultivates his forging and building process as a mindful process: a creation meditation. His method is to build a constant flow of a particular energy into every piece. Each work is made within the flow of Pintus effort to carry and visualize a certain energy or intention. In many ways, that intention is part of how the voice of that instrument or sculpture is felt by anyone who hears it. In this way, a meditation of material creation becomes yet another meditation in a client’s hands.
A Whole Greater than the Sum of its Parts
A single gong, cymbal, or metal rod may sound a mindfulness bell in a quiet corner of your home, meeting room, or meditation hall. A sculptural installation may sing in the wind and chime in the rain on a garden path, lend its fascination to an office foyer, or give unique beauty to a central area of a home. Pintus’ creations create good vibrations and make bold statements on their own. But they also play well with others!
Imagine a small commissioned glockenspiel. Of course, it can be loved in a solitary way, but it can be chimed to sound the call for dinner time. It can deliver the tune of a child’s bedtime tucking-in ritual. It can be played by siblings and families and friends together. It can become a tiny centre of musical creativity and interpersonal interaction in a school classroom. It can nurture play and harmony between people and in daily transitions. All that from a little glockenspiel… can you imagine what a set of gongs might be capable of?
Pintus sees his creations as nurturing social music instruments. From finger cymbals to a sound-sculpture installation, they invite play and experimentation, and expand our relationship with music beyond a habitual passive consumption to a willing participation and exploration. When more than one person steps into play with sound, we have connection and improvisation, which requires a deep listening and engagement. He posits the captivating possibility of an installation of sculpture and/or instruments that could only be played fully by more than one.
