A trained cellist, Theremin recognised the potential of his discovery, and intended to create an entirely new instrument. But he found his apparatus emitted a strange warbling tone, which he could shape by moving his hands around the equipment. In 1920, he invented a machine that aimed to use the new-fangled technology of radio waves to measure some properties of gas. Born in 1896 in St Petersburg, he showed precocious ability as a child engineer, reputedly dismantling and reassembling watches and other mechanical items by the age of seven, and constructing an astronomical observatory by 15. The theremin was invented around 1920 by Russian physicist Lev Sergeyevich Termen – commonly known later as Léon Theremin.
“Coming from a classical background, learning cello, the theremin just seemed otherworldly to me.” “I think it just has so much unexplored potential – and it is also mesmerising visually,” says Icelandic musician Hekla (full name Hekla Magnúsdóttir), who combines theremin and voice on her albums, most recently 2020’s Sprungur. And now the theremin is inspiring a new wave of artists, its modern renaissance aided by documentaries like 1993’s Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. Invented 100 years ago, the world’s first electronic instrument inspired a surge in sound technology that led to Robert Moog’s creation of the modern synthesiser, transforming the musical landscape ever since. Meet the only musical instrument controlled entirely without physical contact. Its music seems conjured from nothing, notes and tones teased and manipulated by hypnotic movements of hand and fingers through air. The theremin sometimes seems like an instrument from Earth’s future or another world.
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