Mozel tov, It's An Aulochrome!
/Not sure if anyone's seen this, but it's kind of like the Siamese twins of saxophone:
It's called the Aulochrome, and it's the newest edition to the saxophone family. From what I can hear and tell from the videos I've seen, it's 2 Soprano saxes fused together with a single line of alternate key work allowing each hand to play different notes at the same time between the two horns. Not only is the body 2 in 1, but the mouthpiece(s) follows suit. These two fused mouthpieces each have a dedicated reed and share one "double ligature" designed by Francois Louis that wraps around both mouthpieces. From what Joe says in the video, you can achieve any interval between the two Sopranos depending on the fingerings you use. Originally conceived for a classical piece premiered by Fabrizio Cassol, Joe is the first to record a jazz record using this horn.
The way the intervals work is each "key" is actually split into two halves. Top half of the key corresponds to the left horn, bottom half to the right. Fingering a low D in unison would be the normal fingering on saxophone with both halves covered. Now, by releasing the bottom half of the D key, the left horn plays a D while the right horn plays an E or an interval of a Major 2nd (whole step). Each horn has a dedicated octave key as well so you can make either one of these notes jump to the next octave forming a dominant 7th (E1-D2) or major 9th (D1-E2). The third video of Lovano's custom case gives you a better look at the mechanics of the horn.
Cool concept and I think you'll dig the videos, but I do have one critique to make. Have the people involved in this not heard of a chorus pedal and a harmonizer with a detune function? I mean no offense to anyone that was a part of this project and I do understand that working with a harmonizer still wouldn't let you truly improvise with harmony, BUT, it seems like we're exacerbating the acoustic realm and ignoring the realm of electronics that already achieves the same sounds that Lovano is getting on the Aulochrome. I know I'm a gear head, and you guys can probably tell my love of effects, but after listening to the videos all I can think of is going onto GuitarCenter.com, purchasing a chorus pedal, and having it sent to Lovano with a gift receipt :-) That being said, this would be an incredible horn to actually play. The possibilities are incredible, especially with a level of proficiency; Saxophonists could finally play as part of the rhythm section. All in all, very cool, fairly new saxophone toy that we can all drool over. Mozel tov Saxes!!
Link from the Francois Louis site for Aulochrome.com
