The trick with scrap-aluminum gongs is that you just can’t tune them.

So I built this basic array by ear (back when I decommissioned XyloVan), choosing disc gongs that would resonate well together.

This past month, I upgraded the whole thing to get it ready for visitors to Seacompression to bang on and enjoy.

Weather had beaten the crap out of the backboard while it lived on our rooftop in Brooklyn (site of my many nighttime courtyard gong serenades), so I gave it a fun paint job.

And I engraved all 7 of the otherwise dull chunks of metal, using a 1/16″ burr bit on my Dremel for the lines and shading, and then a series of drillbits for the points, all of which … took a few hours.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.