Musician Plays Saxophone Duets With a Natural Gas Pipeline Echo

Watch him play the "tube blues" with an unlikely partner.
Derya Ozdemir

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in late 2019 left many feeling isolated and lonely. As we kept our distance physically, we were challenged to find different ways to bond with loved ones and friends. If our hobbies involved others, they had to take a backseat while we prioritized our health – or find creative solutions to enjoy activities we once enjoyed with a group. 

Musician Armin Küpper in Mönchengladbach, Germany got especially creative. Instead of playing a saxaphone duet with another musician, he played with a pipeline. After the construction workers leave for the evening, he plays the "tube blues."

This "lonely concert" as he calls it, is played directly next to the natural gas pipeline. The resulting echo serves as a second "musician," answering his notes.

"This sound on the tube, in this loneliness, always gives me the feeling: Hey, you're not alone there! Sometimes I just can't stop playing. The nice thing is, when it gets cool in the evening, I sit down in the pipeline heated up during the day and enjoy the sunset playing the saxophone."

As of May 2020, Küpper noted that an album called "Tube Sound" was in the works. 

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