Hans Reichel

The German-born artist first gained notoriety in the '70s as an improviser playing highly customized guitars. A consummate craftsman, Reichel began building his own stringed instruments ? which occasionally featured multiple bridges and necks ? from exotic woods. The results are as sonically unique as they are visually striking. His most important invention, however, is the daxophone, a collection of elaborately shaped wooden sticks played with a bow and a fretted wedge. The instrument has an animalistic vocal quality, and Reichel enjoys creating choruses of these voices for his compositions.

Reichel's Web sites are peppered with images of the daxophone. The site based on his CD Shanghaied on Tor Road, www.daxo.de offers the visitor a friendly, gamelike experience. But unlike many Flash-oriented Web sites that feature empty displays of the technology, Reichel's uses Flash to slowly reveal aspects of his work, as well as his wit, including photos and sound files of his instruments, interactive games, and musical sequences with animation.