Underdog Electronic Music School: Cymbals as Sonic Storytellers—Inside the Cymbalsmith’s Workshop

The video opens with a confession: cymbals have always been distant, almost spectral, for those who dwell in the world of electronic music. Their presence is felt through samples, recordings, and the filtered haze of white noise—never quite tangible, always a little out of reach. Here, cymbals are described as artifacts from another dimension, shimmering on the edge of perception, their true character obscured by layers of mediation.

Underdog Electronic Music School invites us to cross that threshold. The cymbal, often relegated to marking climaxes or transitions, is revealed as a vessel of energy—each crash a bloom of light, each splash a momentary explosion. The language of cymbals, shaped by marketing and tradition, belies their modernity and their power to punctuate, to ride, to shimmer at the boundaries of rhythm and noise.

We meet Mariano, the cymbalsmith, in his Brussels workshop—a space where bronze is transformed by ritual and obsession. Every cymbal that leaves his hands is a singular creation, hammered and shaped through a process that is as much about listening as it is about labor. The raw material, the blank, is a disc of potential, warped and waiting, its voice still hidden beneath the surface.

Mariano’s craft is tactile and intimate. The act of hammering is where most of the magic happens, coaxing resonance from chaos. The bell, he explains, is the soul of the cymbal—its birth marked by a shift from void to warmth, from spectral extremes to a more human song. The transformation is gradual, each stage revealing new layers of sustain, color, and possibility.

Cymbals are more than noise—they are a mesh of harmonics, a living bed of frequencies that shimmer and recede. Mariano describes his approach as one of subtraction: removing what is bothersome, allowing the instrument’s true resonance to emerge. The result is a sound that is both functional and mysterious, a beautiful white noise that carries both articulation and depth.

The physical form of the cymbal is inseparable from its voice. Every curve and angle shapes the movement of sound, from the sub-bass hum at the edge to the crystalline highs near the bell. Cymbals are cousins to gongs, their vibrations painting acoustic landscapes that are as visual as they are sonic. Each one is a world unto itself, a color and a character that inspires musicians across genres.

For Mariano, cymbals are the most expressive part of the drum set—a source of endless fascination and experimentation. Their sound is unchangeable, a gift and a challenge, offering a palette of tones that can be swapped, collected, and cherished like rare pigments.

The conversation turns to the triangle method—a ritual of exploration and capture. Here, the cymbal becomes a sound object, activated in myriad ways and recorded for later transformation. This approach is about harvesting textures, letting the instrument reveal its ghosts and hidden voices through unconventional interactions.

By recording extended explorations, the triangle method creates a reservoir of sonic colors. These fragments become the raw material for new compositions, blurring the line between acoustic tradition and electronic invention. The process is tactile, playful, and open-ended—a dance with resonance and unpredictability.