Pablo's Heart-01 Performance Sampler Is Bizarrely Brilliant [Video]

As bizarre instruments go, Rhea Jeong's Pablo's Heart-01 certainly manages to distinguish itself. Looking like a cross between an AK-16 – which the designer claims was a style inspiration – and a particularly skinny electric cello, PB-01 is actually a new performance sampler where audio clips are triggered by playing the physical strings or horn sections of the instrument.

"The instrument elaborates with taking the analogue characters of existing instruments and transcending it to the digital, making it an innovative DJ performance culture" Jeong claims, and while we're not entirely sure what that means, it certainly looks fun. The body of the PB-01 can be tapped and moved to amplify and twist pitching and tuning, too, reflecting the sampler's intent as a stage instrument rather than something relegated to the depths of the studio.

If you think that's all bizarre, then you should definitely check out the video below showing the PB-01 being put through its glitchy paces by German electro band Cindy Sizer. Instruments that double as pugil sticks are probably the future.

[via designboom]