About the EP

“SoundFont 1 – The Richard Haka Flute” marks the first release in Itai Weissman’s SoundFont series, a long-term artistic exploration that re-imagines historical instruments within the digital realm.

The album centers on a 17th-century transverse flute built by the celebrated Amsterdam maker Richard Haka, one of the earliest professional flute craftsmen in Europe. Sampled at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam under curatorial guidance from Dr. Giovanni di Stefano, and performed by renowned historical flutist Prof. Kate Clark, the project captures the intimate breath and refined sonority of an instrument that rarely sounds today.

Through the Dgtalrevival process, meticulous sampling, spectral analysis, and digital re-synthesis, Weissman transforms these fragile sounds into a playable digital instrument for the Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI). The result is not a replica but a re-imagination: the Haka flute extended beyond its physical limits, capable of polyphony, expanded range, and new expressive colors while retaining the grain and texture of its 17th-century voice.

Across the album’s tracks, the original acoustic identity of the flute becomes the seed for new musical possibilities, lyrical counterpoint, layered choirs of “Haka quartets,” and ambient sound worlds that balance baroque intimacy with digital presence. Each piece reveals how historical constraints can become the foundation for modern creation.

“SoundFont 1 – The Richard Haka Flute” inaugurates a series that turns museum preservation into living sound. What was once too rare or too fragile to play is re-born, not as imitation, but as a dialogue between centuries: between wood and data, breath and algorithm, past and possibility.