mythology is anonymous collective art
myths do not own to individual inventors, nor do they belong to a single person
nobody claims copyright on myths
myths inspired human beings to live their lives
artistically man created myths / myths are paradoxical / and muths created music, dance, body painting, performance, happenings...
or in one word, live art without boundaries between media
once myths were the heart of art
a beating centre of social activities
of sharing life
hope and disillusion
joy and death
love and anxiety

myths inspired human beings to be part of nature
cloud and rocks
animals and plants
myths are manmade
art is manmade
let art become a myth
let creativity melt into one collective anonymous live-art without boundaries.

ADAD, is the Babylonian god of Storm and Thunder. In the Babylonian myth of the Flood, Adad is described vividly. Utnapishtim is instructed by Ea, who was the first of the Babylonian order of Gods, to build a ship into which he would bring "the seed of all living things". "(Whatever I had) I laded upon here: Whatever I (had) of gold I laded upon here Whatever I had of silver I laded upon here Whatever I had of all the living beings I laded upon here..." Then Adad, the God of Storm and Thunder, thunders. The Gods themselves are alarmed and cower like dogs against the wall of heaven. Adad, the Storm, rages for six days and six nights. Adad is the pneumaphone with a large drum because Adad storms and thunders violently.

AEOLUS, (Aiolos), "The Earth Destroyer". Son of Poseidon and Greek god of Winds. He rules his rebellious subjects - the Winds - imprisoned in a cave on the Eolian islands, or carried around in a leather bag. As soon as he disobeys Zeus by allowing his subjects to escape without permission, they cause shipwrecks and destruction. Once upon a time, Aeolus asked Odysseus to bring the leather bag of Winds back to the Greek continent, but the Winds escaped and Odysseus was once again shipwrecked. Aeolus, the God of Winds, is the pneumaphone with four plastic flutes, symbolizing the 4 wind directions under his control.

APU-HAU is one of the eleven children of Tawhiri, the God of Hurricanes and Storms in Polynesian myth. These children are the eleven Storm Gods. Apu-Hau means "Fierce Squalls". Thus, the pneumaphone Apu-Hau can produce harsh cries by sudden and vehement gusts of wind through his prepared metal organpipe.

APU-MATANGI is another of the eleven Storm God children of Tawhiri. Apu-Matangi means "Whirlwind" in Polynesian myth. And therefore the pneumaphone Apu-Matangi changes the rhythms and timbres of his sounds with a pneumatic rotator.

AWHIO-WHIO is the Australian God of whirlwinds. His aboriginal name Awhio-Whio is onomatopoeic; it imitates the sound of the Australian whirlwinds. The pneumaphone Awhio-Whio also imitates the sound of his name with two plastic flutes amplified by two small, metal cone-shaped horns.

BOREAS is the Greek NORTH WIND, or "the devouring". He is cold and hard. Boreas blows from Thrace (Northern Greece), where he lives in a mountain cave. Once, he abducted the daughter of Erechtheus, King of Athens, and forced her to marry him. She became the cool breeze bringing fresh air in summertime. The Athenians worshipped Boreas, because he played an important role in their Persian Wars. It is also Boreas who raised the storm which drove Herakles off his course to the island of Cos. The Early Pelasgians (neolithic people immigrating to Greece) sprang from Boreas' teeth... As the Greek North Wind is cold and hard, and because he is symbolized by an old, bearded, winged man, the pneumaphone Boreas makes deep growling sounds and has a stiff severe shape. His sounding pipes are filled with water, enabling the particular sound flexibility of his voice.

EHECATL, the Aztec Wind God, supports the heavens with his hands and is associated with vegetation and fertility> Hence he was sometimes shown as a bearer of grain and maize cobs. Temples dedicated to Ehecatl were circular in shape because, like the wind, he was not restricted to any one direction. Ehecatl, the Lord of the Winds, was one of the many aspects of Quetzalcoatl and symbolized as a conch shell cut in cross-section. This shell was worn by priests as a "Wind Jewel". Ehecatl, Lord of the Winds, wears a "wind mask" that projects like a pointed snout covering the lower part of his face. The mask is painted bright red and is derived from the snout of the Mexican Whistling Toad (Rhinophryne dorsalis). This shape suggested the Earth Mother, a cross between an alligator and a toad. Small pottery idols of Ehecatl's wind mask were kept by Aztecs in their homes. Ehecatl is the pneumaphone with a red circular horn projecting like a snout. Thus the pneumaphone Ehecatl suggests his circular temple and his red wind mask, which mimics the sound of a whisling toad.

EURUS (euros), is one of the wind-sons of Eos and Astraeus. Eurus is the Southeast and East Wind. Eurus stands for hurricane and so he is the loudest and most violent pneumaphone. He is quite unreliable, but on the other hand also capable of the softest tones of all the Pneumaphones. His acoustic mechanism is based on a cavity resonator, an extremely sensitive sound generator creating colored bands of noise.

FAVONIUS, is the Latin name of the Greek Zephyros, "the Wind of the West", announcing spring in the midst of February. He is symbolized as a winged young fellow. Once the symbolic, jealous Favonius blew Apollo's discus in the wrong direction on purpose, thus killing his rival Hyacintus. The pneumaphone Favonius is a living contradiction between its soft whistle sounds and its quite ferocious shape.The black tubes can be seen as fangs or tusks; the air moving in these ribbed plastic electrical tubes causes the sounds. The mechanism is based on cavity resonance and is highly pressure-sensitive as far as pitch is concerned.

GUCUMATZ is the Wind of the Nine Caverns in the Mixtec Indian Creation Legend. Gucumatz manifested as a winged serpent and his mate, the Wind of the Nine Serpents, manifested as a bird. Both caused the waters of the Deluge to subside and land appeared. The pneumaphone Gucumatz has 9 plastic sounding tubes because he is the Wind of the Nine Caverns. The idea of the final pneumaphone project evolved from the construction of Gucumatz, and therefore, Gucumatz caused land to appear.

K, is the Mayan Wind God. He is thought to be a form of Chac Mool, the Rain and Thunder God. Owing to the destruction of nearly the entire literature of the Mayas, the myths of the Mayas have largely passed into oblivion. K is the mysterious tall and slender pneumaphone, concealing his soundmechanism as a never to be known secret. His shape can be associated with his name.

KOLPIA, is the Wind of the Phoenician Creation Legend. In the beginning there was Air and Chaos, from which proceeded Wind and Desire. This Wind was Kolpia. Wind and Desire produced Mot, God of Death, in the shape of an egg. In this, creatures were formed which remained motionless and dormant until the egg opened, wherefrom the sun, the moon, and the stars were projected. The harsh sounds of a brass reed and the archaic shape of the exponential horn are at the origin of this pneumaphone's name Kolpia.

NJORD, the Wind, Rain and Storm God of the Nordic myth was a giant. He is a masculine form of Jord, the Earth Mother Goddess. In the list of Zodiacal houses his residence is given as Noatun, which comes under the sign of Libra. It seems that when Njord displaced Jord, it was considered inappropriate to allot him her mansion and her sign of the Zodiac, therefore he was given the next one in sequence. Njord is the tallest pneumaphone, a giant. He transforms the wind in waterbubble-sounds, since he is the Rain and Storm God.

NOTUS, (Notos), another son of Astraeus, brings warm winds from the SOUTH. As the Latin word "Notus" means also "known", the name of this warm wind is given to the pneumaphone with the known warm sound of a wooden flue organpipe. The organ pipe used here was taken from an authentic 17th century organ and a whole was sawn in his body. Notus has a leather bellow, rising with increasing pressure, and thus closing the whole and lowering the pitch of the sound. Notus calms you down, he brings deep rest and peace.

OONAWIEH UNGGI, "The Oldest Wind", is a Wind God of the Cherokee Indians. Oonawieh Unggi was one of their main deities, together with the bisexual thundergod "The Red Man or The Red Woman" and the Hunting God "Slanting Eyes", who dwelt in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The pneumaphone Oonawieh Unggi, the Oldest Wind, although small, expresses dignity by his elegant shape and severe sound.

TAWHIRI, God of hurricanes and Storms, had thirteen children. In Polynesian myth, eleven of these children were Storm Gods. Their names may have been a record of storms and conditions encountered on the long sea voyages of the Polynesians in colonizing the Pacific. The pneumaphone Tawhiri amplifies his sirenlike sounds by a big parabolic soundreflector since he is the Lord of Hurricanes. As a matter of fact, for his mechanism five small copper sirens were made.

TEMBO, is the most recent of the pneumaphones and the last one at the same time. This is also why he is not playing on this record, as he was not yet made at the moment these performances took place. As an African windgod, he must be black and thus he seems to disappear on the black vinyl of the record. He was built in 1994 at the occasion of the presentation on the pneumaphone project at the Antwerp 'Singel'.

TESHUB, is the Hurrian Hittite ruler over storms, holding lightning in his hand. He drives a primitive kind of chariot drawn by bulls over the heads of personified mountains. The bull is his sacred animal.Teshub was the slayer of the dragon Illuyankas.When Teshub displaced his father Kumarbi as king of the Gods, Kumarbi organised a conspiracy against his son Teshub. He planned to create a mighty rebel who could defeat Teshub and destroy his city Kummiya. He enlisted the support of the Sea in his plan and married the Sea's daughter. Also, "Great Mountain Peak" was his mate. In due course a son was born to him and was named Ullikummi or "Destroyer of Kummiya, the city of Teshub." The body of this child was made of diorite stone. The son was carried down to earth and placed on the shoulders of Upelluri, (an Atlas figure), where he grew apace in the midst of the sea. When he had grown so big that the sea reached only up to the middle of his body, the Sun-God espied him and was filled with anger and dismay. He hastened to inform Teshub and the latter climbed to the top of a high mountain, whence he could see the monstrous Ullikummi rising out of the sea. Teshub wept bitterly and decided to go to battle. With the ancient saw, which heaven and earth was divided by, the diorite-stone was severed and the power destroyed. The large pneumaphone made of heavy wooden timbers and a large hyperbolic metal soundreflector is Teshub. He produces fierce, rather lowpitched squeaks produced by two mutually exclusive prepared large brass reeds.

XIX, alias number nineteen, is the contemporary Pneumaphone god with the mysterious voice. His sound is Japanese in character and as a Zen-boudhist, he always tends to forget his own name. XIX rules over the Japanese Sea and hence his wind causes waves within both of his oildrums, thus controlling and modulating his whistling melodies originating from his four horns. These symbolise the four directions of winds. His sound inflections are subtle and Japanese. His favorite colour is red and his appearance, elegant and serene.

ZU, is the Assyrian Storm God symbolized in the form of a bird. Zu once stole the tablets of Creation and took them to a mountain top where he hid them. The Sun-God secured their return with the aid of a net in which Zu was ensnared. The pneumaphone Zu is small and inconspicious, but his character is sly, since he produces unexpected sliding reed sounds. His horn is silvered and his neck was shaped after some waterbird.