Andrea Piccioni · Live · Workshop
FRAME
MACHINE
The tamburello as a drum machine.
The tamburello and the jaw harp become a live electroacoustic system: one microphone, one iPad and Loopy Pro. No sequences, no backing tracks: only the hands on the instruments and the feet on the pedalboard.
Tamburello · Frame drums · Riqq · Bendir · Jaw harp · Handpan · Voice · Electronics
Live · Tamburi Mundi 2025
On stage
AWASE
From the Rōnin EP. Tamburi Mundi 2025.
Tamburello solo with electronics
Tamburi Mundi 2025.
At the Tamburi Mundi festival in Freiburg, the largest festival devoted to frame drums.
The concept
Two voices, one gesture
The tamburello and the jaw harp are two archaic voices, two opposite ways of making sound: the strike and the drone. In Frame Machine they do not stop being acoustic instruments; they become electroacoustic ones. The point is not to replace, mask or distort their voices, but to amplify them, multiply them and project them into new sonic dimensions.
Impulse
The tamburello
The rhythmic engine: the deep DUM at the centre of the skin, the dry, muted PA, the shimmer of the jingles. A vocabulary of impulses. It marks time.
Drone
The jaw harp
The harmonic source: a continuous sound whose spectrum is sculpted by the mouth and the hand. A vocabulary of resonances. It suspends time.
It is not about adding effects to two instruments, but about building a complete sonic organism. The gesture stays traditional; the result is revolutionary.
Tradition is not a museum: it is a river. It changes shape, crosses new territories and grows richer with tributaries, but the source remains the same: the hand striking the skin, the breath setting the reed in motion. Taking these instruments into electronics is simply the next step, one that keeps the physicality of the gesture intact.
How it works
- 01Handstamburello and jaw harp, played as always
- 02One microphonea single one, for both voices
- 03Two flowsin Loopy Pro on iPad: one effects chain per voice
- 04Masterone more layer of effects over the whole system
- 05Audiencea layered concert, built in front of the listeners
The acoustic sound
Tamburello, frame drums, riqq, bendir, the jaw harp in its marranzano, doromb and ribeba forms, handpan and voice. The strike on the skin and the breath on the reed are always the starting point.
Loops, MIDI and synthesis
Loopy Pro is the only performance environment: phrases are recorded and layered on the spot, MIDI drives synthesisers and harmonic layers, and a custom-designed canvas puts every control under the feet.
The transformation
Eventide, Moog and BLEASS effects take the sound where the acoustic instrument alone cannot go: a pulse that shakes the floor, a harmonic cloud that fills a cathedral, an endless tail that suspends time.
The feet choose and transform; the hands never stop playing.
The instruments in detail are on the biography page.
Live looping · Live electronics
The sound language
The techniques that turn the acoustic sound electroacoustic, live.
Live looping
Phrases are recorded and layered on the spot, layer after layer, until they become a complete groove.
Live electronics
The acoustic signal goes into the iPad and comes out transformed in real time: no sound is prepared in advance.
Granular reverbs
Spaces that widen without end and harmonic clouds that fill the room.
Delays and modulation
Multi-tap delays, chorus, phaser and ring modulator set the spectrum of the sound in motion.
Pitch shifting
The instrument's voice splits and shifts: a bass line grows out of the strike, a chord out of the drone.
Freeze, stutter, tape-stop
The sound freezes, fractures in time, slows down like a tape coming to a halt.
More from the stage
SamaiiMoog
Composed and performed by Andrea Piccioni. Tamburi Mundi 2026.
Impro / Cantata BWV 147
J. S. Bach, for jaw harp and electronics.
Rōnin · EP
The EP that gathers the first season of Frame Machine: Dreamland, Barilli, Phase #4, Awase, Phase #6.
“Listening takes us through tracks with different atmospheres and suggestions, in which Piccioni's sound research of the last few years stands out.”
— Salvatore Esposito, Blogfoolk
Concert and masterclass
The concert
A layered concert, built live
Frame Machine is first of all a live show: the system meets the audience. On stage there are the tamburello, the jaw harp, an iPad and two feet: all it takes for a layered concert, built in front of those who listen. A single musician with traditional instruments moves through grooves, drones and electronic landscapes within one set. The technical rider lists everything the venue needs.
The masterclass
From the gesture to the system, instrument in hand
The system is also teaching material: masterclasses and seminars where the path is crossed live, from the acoustic preparation of the tamburello to the Loopy Pro canvas and a complete performance. It is not about teaching software: it is about passing on a way of thinking about sound, and about the relationship between the ancient gesture and digital transformation.
It is meant for percussionists and traditional musicians who know their instrument well and want to explore creative amplification. No sound-engineering background is needed.