That is a bit of a name-drop, but Telepathic Instruments, the creators of the Orchid, was founded by Kevin Parker (Tame Impala), Ignacio Germade, Chris Adams, Charl Laubscher, and Tom Cosm.

To celebrate new stock of the Orchid, the company’s “chord-generating synthesizer” the device was on display at a Soho pop-up shop in London.

I visited the shop and tried the new clear ‘arctic’ colourway, as well as the other ‘burnt yellow’ standard edition. And even as someone not too musical (excluding the guitar) it was really easy to pick-up and play.

The clear model is US$699, while the regular model is US$649. If I get a job I might pick one up.

From Telepathic Instruments, the Orchid features:

A single-octave, velocity-sensitive keyboard, used to determine the root note of chords.

The upper row of Chord Type buttons determine the type of chord, while the lower Chord Modifier buttons add colour and complexity to your chord. Multiple modifiers can be used in combination... just be careful of too much jazz.

Two Voicing Dials allow you to move fluidly up and down the keyboard, one note at a time, causing a continuous cascade of chord voicing inversions, dramatically altering a chord’s tonal character.

Nine rotary encoders to access, modify and save an array of sounds, performance styles and effects. Record, layer, and manipulate musical phrases in real-time, or save it as a loop while switching between 20 pre-programmed drum beats.

Two integrated stereo speakers for immediate audio feedback. For when you want to *just jam*.