The Irvine

The Irvine is another musical mystery by Andy Cavatorta, imagining an alternate future of electronic instruments with gallium phosphate crystals. Universal Solvent Studios joined the team in prototype development, to the current mark VII instrument at its home in Austria.

Gallium phosphate crystals are a wholly synthetic material invented over 20 years of industry research by AVL, The Irvine commission commemorates the 75th birthday of CEO and inventor Herr Doktor Professor Helmut List. The piezocrystals operate in high temperature and pressure industry situations, in The Irvine they produce sound waves from oscillating pairs of resonant crystals; translated into the frequency of human hearing they have sensitivity in an instrument to be played like a human voice.