An Electro-Acoustic Instrument Made Out of an Old Singer Sewing Machine

kottke.org September 09, 2025 By Jason Kottke

Gabriel Bonnin, aka Singer Sound System, plays an electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy that’s driven by an old Singer sewing machine pedal.

My instrument is an electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy. I just removed the crank and use a Singer machine to drive it :-) It is equipped with four integrated microphones that allow me to process the sound live, especially in Ableton Live.

Some of his most popular recent covers include the Doctor Who theme1:

Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train:

The X-Files theme:

And Enter Sandman by Metallica:

Oh and Daft Punk!

You can find his stuff on YouTube and Instagram.

  1. One commenter on Instagram remarked: “This sounds more like the Dr Who theme than the Dr who theme does”.

Tags: Gabriel Bonnin · music · remix · video

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

Gabriel Bonnin, aka Singer Sound System, plays an electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy that’s driven by an old Singer sewing machine pedal.

My instrument is an electro-acoustic hurdy-gurdy. I just removed the crank and use a Singer machine to drive it :-) It is equipped with four integrated microphones that allow me to process the sound live, especially in Ableton Live.

Some of his most popular recent covers include the Doctor Who theme1:

Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train:

The X-Files theme:

And Enter Sandman by Metallica:

Oh and Daft Punk!

You can find his stuff on YouTube and Instagram.

  1. One commenter on Instagram remarked: “This sounds more like the Dr Who theme than the Dr who theme does”.

Tags: Gabriel Bonnin · music · remix · video

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

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Published on September 09, 2025 by Jason Kottke

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