I am seeking creative musicians and composers who play the waterphone(s) exceptionally well and have recordings of their music. The TOP THREE will be posted to this site along with a short - 2 minutes or less piece of music and it can be an excerpt from a long piece of music. The music submitted can have other instruments but the waterphone must be the featured instrument. It can also be a combination of waterphones. All genres of music will be considered as in classical, jazz, free, improvised, country, rock, rap, latin, and pop. Information should accompany the piece of music such as who is submitting and how to get in touch with them, the players, where/who recorded and on what equipment and a link to where it can be purchased if it is for sale. (Only the information you want listed will be on my web site.) The mp3 can be submitted as an attachment to an email or on a CD. If submitting a CD contact me for a mailing address. Nothing will be returned so send copies - no originals. If you have an exceptional or outstanding photo please include that. Every year or two assuming I have enough entrees, I will make changes by putting up on this web site newer waterphone music that is judged as superior .

The prizes for the top 3 winners, (aside from the exposure on my web site) will be items such as a new pair of bamboo/superball mallets or perhaps a small percussion item, hand made by me. Judges will be myself and perhaps others I designate who have experience not only with the waterphone but a wide range of contemporary music in general. You are welcome to enter more than one piece of music as well as participating yearly.

- Winners -

Jesse Stewart

Inner Voices

"Inner Voices" was recorded by Johannes Welsch at the Dunrobin Sonic Gym outside of Ottawa, Canada in 2009. The recording consists of bowed solo Megabass waterphone with a little bit of studio processing: the initial recording is transposed down two and three octaves and then the two tracks are played a little bit out of phase with one another. This results in suprisingly human sounding vocal/choral quality, particularly toward the end of the piece.

Jesse Stewart
stewartjesse@hotmail.com

Photo by Jake Morrison

Email: info@jessestewart.ca
Website: www.jessestewart.ca

Todd Barton

Kensho

"Kensho" was performed on a Standard waterphone. The waterphone part was recorded live in a single pass then brought into Logic and I performed a single live backing track using a synth pad from Spectrasonics' software synth: Omnisphere. The timbral complexity and flexibility of the waterphone fascinates and inspires me endlessly. Thank you Richard for such a phenomenal instrument. And, once again, I'm honored and humbled to be a part of this group of waterphone players.

Todd Barton

Email: bartonmusic@mac.com
Website: http://web.mac.com/toddbarton

Toshiyuki Hiraoka

Iron Fish

I played and recorded the song. The loops were created with a delay pedal while layering sounds. Then I edited a bit on PC. This time I used a little condenser micophone (audio-technica ATM35) to record the Megabass.

Toshiyuki Hiraoka

Website: http://www.toshiyukihiraoka.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/toshiwater or http://www.myspace.com/toshiyukihiraokaski

- Last Year's Winners -