Expressive E

The origin of osmose

Expressive E was created with one very simple goal in mind: make electronic music products that provide the immediacy and the emotive capability of acoustic instruments. In fact, one of Expressive E’s first projects began at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, where they studied one of their greatest inspirations - one of the first electronic instruments, the legendary Ondes Martenot.

Invented in the 1920’s by French cellist and radio telegrapher Maurice Martenot, the Ondes Martenot featured a special lever for intensity (“touche d’intensité”), a mechanism similar to a morse code telegraph key, which allowed fine, gradual control over the amplitude of the sound in real-time. By carefully pressing on this lever, the player could perform all kinds of different articulations with their left hand, while performing pitch on a keyboard with the right hand. There was a very specific and pleasing reactivity to this lever, which was actually created by a small bag filled with conductive powder, hidden inside. Our research team focused on how one could recreate this specific feel, but using modern engineering techniques.
The result was a silicone cylinder, which would go on to become the heart of the patented mechanism that drove our first product : Touché.