Ondioline

First conceived by Jenny in 1939, he continued refining and reconfiguring the device, producing dozens of variant models up until his death in 1975.

According to Ondioline authority/historian Wally De Backer, "The instrument was also offered in 'kit' form, where Jenny recommended purchasing the more complex assemblies – such as the keyboard – as complete units.

The schematics were made available for amateur engineers to construct their own custom instruments, and they were encouraged to experiment with the amplifier, tone circuits and cabinetry.

[5] According to a 1957 promotional brochure published by Jenny, works had been composed for the instrument by Honneger, Milhaud, Georges Auric, Joseph Kosma, Wanda Landowska, and Marcel Delannoy.

The Ondioline is based on a multivibrator oscillator circuit, producing a pulse-like waveform that is fed through a series of discrete filters.

[11][12] Composer Juan García Esquivel used an Ondioline in 1959 on the recording "Watchamacallit," from his album Exploring New Sounds in Hi-Fi (RCA).

This instrumental version of the theme from the 1962 film Mondo Cane was arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman, with the Ondioline played by Perrey (who had by then moved to New York).

Notable examples are "I Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes" and "Steve's Song" from the 1966 Blues Project album Projections, and "No Time Like the Right Time" (The Blues Project Live at Town Hall, 1967); "Meagan's Gypsy Eyes" from Blood Sweat & Tears' Child Is Father to the Man (1968); "His Holy Modal Majesty" with Mike Bloomfield on Super Session (1968); "Her Holy Modal Highness" from the album The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper (1968); and Kooper's first solo album, I Stand Alone (1969).

Tommy James and the Shondells' 1967 hits "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mirage" featured Ondioline, played by session keyboardist Artie Butler.

The instrument is featured prominently on dozens of early Motown recordings by acts such as the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations and the Marvelettes, notably the songs "After All", "I Want a Guy", and "(You're My) Dream Come True", on which it was played by Raynoma Liles Gordy.

[16] Jean-Jacques Perrey continued to perform live shows with the Ondioline until his death in 2016; he featured the instrument on his collaborative albums with musician Dana Countryman, The Happy Electropop Music Machine (2006) and Destination Space (2008), both issued on the Oglio label.

[17] "We got to know each other over a number of visits," said De Backer, "and through the time I spent with him in his apartment in Lausanne in Switzerland, he and his daughter Patricia started to produce all sorts of ... interesting early recordings that hadn’t been released — test pressings, alternative arrangements of things that are better known in his work.

[1] In October 2022, Spitfire Audio released a virtual recreation of the Ondioline, called Electronic Antique, as part of their free LABS plugin.