Wave, Wearable MIDI Ring, Doubles Fundraising Goal & Used During Björk Rehearsal

Icelandic company Genki Instruments completed its Indiegogo campaign for its new device, Wave, which more than doubled its initial fundraising goal (that's $62,365 USD total funds raised)! This came just days before Wave was seen being used by producer/musician Bergur Þórisson during the dress rehearsal for Icelandic pop icon Björk's upcoming Utopia Tour.

It should be no surprise that Björk would experiement with new and innovative technology. When Damian Taylor (Bjork, Arcade Fire, Gotye)  was working with the Icelandic singer they used the futuristic Reactable and Lemur in some live sets.

An innovative new MIDI device, Wave is a wearable ring that allows musicians to control sound, change effects, and send commands with the motion of their hands. It caught the attention of music tech enthusiasts and press outlets at this year's NAMM conference, including Reuters, who interviewed Genki COO Haraldur and featured a live demo of Wave at Genki's booth at NAMM. 

Wave was developed in close cooperation with musicians and was used live on stage for the first time last November at Iceland Airwaves 2017. Wave is now market-ready and will ship to the Indiegogo first buyers in December 2018.

You can pre-order Wave on IndieGoGo (for delivery in December 2018) from just $149. Additionally, there's a useful eurorack module called Wavefront that acts as a receiver for Wave for your modular synth system. 

"Wave adds a new dimension to musical creativity... It’s a cool tool for all creatives and I can definitely recommend adding it to your workflow, whether you use it to replace your old techniques or invent new ones." - Bergur Þórisson, recording engineer, producer, and live musician (Björk, Sigur Rós, Damien Rice, Ólafur Arnalds, Jóhann Jóhannson)

"In the best case scenario, the Wave will revolutionize the way people interact with computers in music." Noisey

"For someone who has a setup they like but wants a novel way to tweak parameters with hand motions and maybe trigger a drum pad or two, the Wave wearable MIDI controller from Genki Instruments is an interesting option." The Verge

And here's a pretty cool video showing how Wave can be used as a very practical and creative MIDI controller alongside the Teenage Engineering OP-1: