The Wintergatan Marble Machine, music made from 2,000 marbles

Multiple instruments are interlaced within this 3,000 part, hand-crafted invention by Swedish musician Martin Molin. With continuous cranking, lever flips, and other machine tweaks, his original composition comes to life via 2,000 steel marbles racing, bouncing, and riding through its sound-producing pathways. This is the Wintergatan Marble Machine. Via Colossal:

As the devices cycles it activates a vibraphone, bass, kick drum, cymbal and other instruments that play a score programmed into a 32 bar loop comprised of LEGO technic parts. The marbles are moved internally through the machine using funnels, pulleys, and tubes.

It took over a year to make… 14 months to be exact. See more of Molin’s behind-the-scenes work on YouTube, including these how-it-was-made videos:

Update: Evelina Hägglund records a piano version of the machine’s song:

Watch these next: Tiger Rag on a homemade Emphatic Chromatic Callioforte, Paul Grundbacher’s wooden marble machines, the LEGO Bionicle Toa Mata Band, and The LEGO Great Ball Contraption.

Bonus: Metropolis II at LACMA.