Vegetable Orchestra

A group of Vienna based musicians created an alternative orchestra in 1998, composed of musical instruments made out of fresh vegetables; they call themselves the Vegetable Orchestra.  That's pretty cool in my book.

Chladni Plates

Invented by German physicist Ernst Chladni in the late 1700's to illustrate the patterns of two  dimensional sound waves.  They are created by stroking a bow against the edge of a steel plate that is covered with a thin layer of sand.  The plates' unique vibrations will cause the sand to move and settle in various nodal patterns; nodes are the points of absolutle zero vibrations.  The more complex the vibration is, the more elaborate the resulting pattern will be.  Chladni Plate techniques are commonly used to aide in the design of acoustic instruments such as violins, guitars, and cellos. 

I love that when I'm searching for something in Google Images, I often stumble upon something wholly unrelated yet amazing.  Chladni plates are one of these.  They have a couple videos online showing the technique in motion which are pretty cool.

Newly Designed Piano

British musician, Geoff Smith, has recently redesigned a key instrument in western classical composition, the piano. Ten years in the making, this purely acoustic instrument introduces microtonal tuning capabilities on each note, so that they can all be altered while being played. No longer restricted to western tonal systems, the Fluid Piano can now be inserted into musical compositions of different cultures that use more microtonal based scales.
Guardian video clip of newly designed piano