Tristan Shone, aka "Author and Punisher," is a metal mad scientist.

Tristan Shone creates some incredible machines. With these machines, he makes some incredible sounds as the industrial-drone/doom-metal band Author and Punisher. All of the instruments on which he plays his music are unique and completely invented by him. This makes an Author and Punisher show something to behold because, not only are you enjoying some body-crushing dark metal, you're trying to figure out just what those machines actually do. Although traditional guitars, drums, and keyboards are no less expressive than the machines Tristan Shone makes we are unused to seeing this kind of musical apparatus and are unsure of how they're used. This unfamiliarity with the equipment renders the performance more bodily, evoking some kind of cyborg struggle played out through metal.
You can listen to the music and watch some of Author and Punisher's musical struggle through the sound and video links below. (this music works best when loud):

The cyborg aspect of Author and Punisher's performance has been accentuated by the debut of some voice-modulating masks that Tristan made to be worn by him and others accompanying him. I have not heard any music made by Author and Punisher using these masks, but the man behind the machines, Tristan Shone, describes them like this: "This is the beginning of a series of voice modulating masks that for the most part will not involve any computer effects. Some actuation will be computer controlled, but I really feel there is enough effect in the voice as it is and I would like to be able to perform acoustically with these masks worn by many musicians."
These masks are pretty awesome and will surely be worn in some distopic future hell-scape...

Author and Punisher, Tristan Shone, is finishing up a west coast tour at the moment in support of his new album "Ursus Americanus" which can be purchased here.

Tristan Shone's work has been featured in many places, including Wired Magazine and Make magazine. See the stories below:


http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/st_obsessed_machines/

http://blog.makezine.com/2011/08/24/build-tristan-shones-headgear-midi-controller/

Here are a couple other good videos of Author and Punisher performing:










(Apologies for the lack of photo credits. I got most of the images from the A+P website and Tristan Shone's facebook. If you are the photographer of any of these images and want credit, please let me know.)