Love Hultén’s new book of audio experiments is weird and wonderful

‘Love Hultén: Works II’ assembles the latest eccentric sonic creations from the Swedish artist and instrument maker

Pink Lab, one of the projects featured in Love Hultén: Works II
Pink Lab, one of the projects featured in ‘Love Hultén: Works II’
(Image credit: Love Hultén)

Prolific synthesist, industrial designer, woodworker and sonic explorer Love Hultén has released another monograph of his singular sound-making creations. Love Hultén: Works II follows on from earlier publications Works and Apparatrum and is equally stuffed full of weird and wonderful devices.

The output of Hultén’s Gothenburg workshop is like nothing else. Typically starting with an existing synth or electronic instrument, each build deconstructs the interface, adds layers of new ways of modulating and manipulating the sound, all wrapped up in idiosyncratic but beautifully crafted cabinets that fetishise the knobs, dials, and screens.

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

Pink Lab, one of the projects featured in Love Hultén: Works II

Pink Lab, one of the projects featured in Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

In addition to reshaping, rewiring and combining synths old and new, Hultén has also tackled vintage video games and even retro-fitted an Aston Martin Lagonda with a custom integrated synth set-up. Projects featured in the new book include Pink Lab, which blends a Taiga by Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers along with a Microcosm glitch pedal and an Arturia KeyStep controller, along with analogue cogs.

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

Soma Lab, one of the projects featured in Love Hultén: Works II

Soma Lab, one of the projects featured in Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

There’s also the Soma Lab, a colossal wall-mounted synth that draws inspiration from the 1960s-era modular hi-fi systems Dieter Rams designed for Braun, and Charlotte, a desktop machine that combines a Moog Minitaur synth with a ferrofluid visualizer and resembles something out of Dr Strangelove.

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

A spread from Love Hultén: Works II

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

Limited to 600 copies, the 152-page hardback monograph is an inspirational journey through the work of a true master of both analogue and digital realms.

Designer Love Hultén with his latest monograph

Designer Love Hultén with his latest monograph

(Image credit: Love Hultén)

Love Hultén, Works II, $49 plus shipping, LoveHulten.com, @LoveHulten

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Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.