Nancy Howie with her homemade hurdy-gurdy Photo: Nancy Howie
Nancy Howie is a piano tuner by profession and during the 2020 lockdowns, she was unable to get out and tune pianos.
Ululophones and lyretars by Nancy Howie Photo: Nancy Howie
So she spent her time writing and recording songs for a solo album. The trouble was: she was hearing things in her songs that needed musical instruments that she didn't have and didn't play – a cello for instance.
Self-confessing as impatient, she didn't let that stop her and she went about constructing her own out of a fence-post, a tin can and a guitar string. The bow was made of a curved branch she found in her garden strung with nylon fishing line. No rosin to draw across the bow? Not a problem: head down to the beach, climb a pine tree and collect some pine resin.
That was the start of a series of inventive creations that she calls 'lyretars' (improvements on that original tin can cello), and 'ululophones' (hooting wind instruments). She's also made a couple of hurdy-gurdies.
All these have been pressed into use in the recording of her album which she hopes to release later this year. She performs in bands with others (including the folk trio Tweed), but for her solo projects she goes under the moniker Fathom.
Tim Dodd visited her at her home in Stanmore Bay to get a look at the instruments born of necessity and "joyful irreverance".
Related: Tweed on NZ Live
Music details:
"The World to Breathe" by Nancy Howie aka Fathom (private recording)
