Musician Martin Molin’s Mammoth Mechanical Marble Machine Makes Magnificent Music

marbles

Marquette, MI –  March 4, 2016  –  What does a musician do when he (or she) has a couple months to spare and 2,000 marbles laying around? Well, if you’re Swedish musician Martin Molin, frontman of Wintergartan, you build a new instrument. Did I say a couple months? Actually, it took 14 to develop this amazing machine.

Molin’s “Marble Machine” is a musical instrument and a Rube Goldberg machine (a deliberately over-engineered contraption that performs a simple task in a complicated fashion). Hand-cranked gears and 2,000 marbles power the machine’s carved wooden parts and… well, you just have to see it in action. The video is mesmerizing:

If you’re interested in the process of creating the machine, check it out on Molin’s website.

Okay, okay… I apologize for the title of the article, I was eating M&M’s and got a little carried away with the alliteration.

 

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