John Cage loved his toy pianos for good reason. Those instruments, with their simple construction and even simpler range, invite chance with every plink — sour notes, rusty mechanics, and so on. And the one-man toy-piano band known as Twink (born Mike Langlie) milks those industrial-design eccentricities for all their textural value.
Just check out his multi-track recording of Christopher Komeda‘s theme to the horror classic Rosemary’s Baby. Langlie’s posted it on his site for free download (for a limited time). The piano, for all its terse timbres, takes on a truly gothic feel, and the extra layers of sound effects make it all the more perfect for Halloween (MP3).
Additional info (including a gallery of images like the one above, of the synthetic-polymer oxymoron that is the Fisher-Price Grand Piano) at twink.net.