Unlocking a Sonic Universe with the Muro Box

Brandon Parkhurst (US）

Unlocking a Sonic Universe with the Muro Box

Brandon Parkhurst (US）

From Guitar to Theremin: My Musical Journey

My name is Brandon Parkhurst and I’ve been a music lover since a very young age. Like many individuals who play music, I got started when my parents made me start piano lessons as a child.. Learning to read music at a young age provided me the musical foundation to teach myself to play several other instruments over the years. Today I primarily write and record music with the guitar but I also play bass, piano, vibraphone, theremin, and the Haken Continuum.

Brandon Parkhurst photographed his Muro Box-N40 Sublime music box (made of Acacia wood) and the N40 resonance box (made of Millettia Laurentii wood, whose Chinese name means “Chicken wing wood”) in front of the fireplace at his home in the United States.
Brandon placed his Muro Box–N40 Sublime music box together with his N20 music box, and the N40 Resonance Box (made of Millettia Laurentii ) in front of his home fireplace. Next to them, he also set up three snowman standees, making it look as if the snowmen were enjoying the music box performance by the fire.
Brandon placed his Muro Box–N40 Sublime music box together with his N20 music box, and the N40 Resonance Box (made of Millettia Laurentii ) in front of his home fireplace.

My First Muro Box: A 20-Note Surprise

I was given a Muro Box N20 by a friend as a gift! I was super intrigued and not long after I received my N20 the announcement of the N40 was made. I pledged through Kickstarter to support the N40 as soon as I could. The N20 and N40 are the only music boxes that I own. In general, I love mechanical things and music boxes are no exception, but the limitation of song choices with a traditional music box kept them on the fringe for me. From the moment that I first read about the N40 I knew that I wanted to arrange Night With the Zombie Moon for playing on the N40. The fact that the Muro Box Team asked for user submissions for inclusion on the offline playlist was even more exciting.

My Journey into Original Music

After playing primarily the guitar for fun and relaxation for 15 years, I bought a digital multitrack recorder almost 20 years ago and started recording covers of songs that I loved to share with friends. Inspired by their feedback I started to create original recordings too. I’ve had the opportunity to play the guitar/bass 6 on a professional recording for a friend that he released independently. I’ve also recorded background music for a couple of other friend’s independent movies. Otherwise I’ve kept my recordings mostly to myself sharing with friends on burned cds or as mp3s. Inspired by having Night With the Zombie Moon selected for inclusion on the N40 offline playlist, I have uploaded a few recordings to Bandcamp. I play all of the instruments heard on my recordings.

This photo contains several of the instruments I use to create music. From the front left there is a 50s reissue Fender Telecaster, a fully custom bass 6 made by a friend (viewers will notice that the silver guitar has a longer neck than the guitars on either side, a bass 6 is a guitar tuned 1 octave lower), a custom guitar made for me by Creston Lea of Creston Guitars, this guitar is called the Sinister 6, and finally to the right an aluminum bodied guitar with a magnesium metal neck made by Arndt Anderson. In the back is a Haken Continuum (the black box with red and black lines), an Atlansia Solitaire single string fretless bass (designed by Nobuaki Hayashi, also known as H. Noble in Japan), and to the back far right, a waterphone.
This photo contains several of the instruments I use to create music. From the front left there is a 50s reissue Fender Telecaster, a fully custom bass 6 made by a friend (viewers will notice that the silver guitar has a longer neck than the guitars on either side, a bass 6 is a guitar tuned 1 octave lower), a custom guitar made for me by Creston Lea of Creston Guitars, this guitar is called the Sinister 6, and finally to the right an aluminum bodied guitar with a magnesium metal neck made by Arndt Anderson. In the back is a Haken Continuum (the black box with red and black lines), an Atlansia Solitaire single string fretless bass (designed by Nobuaki Hayashi, also known as H. Noble in Japan), and to the back far right, a waterphone.

The robot in this image is named “Buick” and was made by New York artist Gordon Bennett from Bennett Robot Works. As I make lounge instrumental/spy/sci-fi inspired music I tend to use robots to represent it. In this photo you see a few more of my instruments, a 1960s vibraphone and a custom theremin made by Charlie Hobbs.

Me and My N40 Sublime Music Box

Right now my N40 Sublime is being used to play music in my family room, I expect that is where it will stay for the foreseeable future. The design of the N40 and its resonance box is very aesthetically pleasing and it sounds wonderful!
To me, the most amazing features of the N40 are the huge number of notes available to be played and its programmable capability. I also love that when using the app to arrange songs for the N40 notes can be moved slightly in front of or behind the beat to create a strummed sound. I used this on several chords while arranging Night With the Zombie Moon.

“Night with the Zombie Moon” is a song that I wrote about 15 years ago. As a songwriter, my inspiration comes primarily from 50s and 60s spy instrumentals and exotica lounge jazz with a bit of movie scoring tossed in too. This piece was originally composed thinking of what a haunted music box might play. To recreate that sound, my original recording was performed on a vibraphone with guitar and theremin.

Close-up photo of Brandon’s customized engraving on the Muro Box-N40 Sublime music box.

With the introduction of the Muro Box N40, I’ve now been able to arrange the music for an actual music box, much to my delight!

The song, as it was originally composed, falls perfectly onto the available notes of the N40. The song has 2 primary sections with each repeat of the first section adding an additional melody or harmony. The middle section contains an additional theremin melody on my original recording but for this arrangement the single vibraphone melody is given more space to breathe and demonstrate the capability of the N40, especially the N40 sublime. With the piece, the spaces between the notes are just as important to the overall feel of the song as the actual notes.

Final Reflection

I am passionate about music and the memories/emotion that it brings to my mind, as well as the emotions that music helps me to create and feel. Having music boxes like the N20 and N40 sublime adds to the options that I have for creating music and listening to it/enjoying it.

Muro Box-N40 Sublime Music Box with its N40 Resonance Box made with Millettia Laurentii (Chicken Wing Wood)
Muro Box-N40 Sublime Music Box with its N40 Resonance Box made with Millettia Laurentii (Chicken Wing Wood)
My trusted Fender telecaster, which is my primary guitar, my custom bass 6, my primary theremin, and a vibraphone for good measure since it was the primary instrument on “Night With the Zombie Moon”.
My trusted Fender telecaster, which is my primary guitar, my custom bass 6, my primary theremin, and a vibraphone for good measure since it was the primary instrument on “Night With the Zombie Moon”.

Where can people listen to my music compositions?

Johnnyman is Brandon Parkhurst and these are my recordings. I’ve been inspired by years of listening to 50s and 60s instrumentals and spy tunes along with as much exotica as I can find. I’ve been fortunate enough to record both covers of songs I love and some originals and I’m sharing them here.

I have a bandcamp page which includes some of my music. You can find it at https://johnnyman.bandcamp.com

“Having music boxes like the N20 and N40 sublime adds to the options that I have for creating music and listening to it/enjoying it.” - Brandon Parkhurst

Brandon Parkhurst

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