If Addi Somekh seems to come across with an inflated sense of self satisfaction, it’s probably okay; as an artist and musician, he’s taking balloons to new heights. Recently a clip called Balloon Bass and Box has been getting a lot of attention in the YouTubian Twitterverse. In the clip, two guys play a song, one playing “balloon bass” and the other playing a wooden box. Pretty amusing in itself, but what no-one seems to do is dig a little deeper and share what a genius this guy Addi Somekh really is. You might call it a bit of a stretch to call a balloon bassist a legitimate musician, but you’d be sadly mistaken in this case. The clip at left is a “making of” video about his new Balloon Bass based album “Air, Rubber and Soul”, which he’s made available for free download at (Warning: site annoyingly resizes your browser) BalloonBass.com. Although I doubt he’ll generate download numbers like NIN or Radiohead, I’d recommend giving it a listen. Although it’s a little diverse stylistically, it has a quirky jazz heart that’s maybe a little reminscent of say, the Lounge Lizards. It features Addi on balloon bass, and has some genuinely solid tunes recorded with a number of his favorite jazz session musicians sitting in. But there’s a lot more to this guy than an inflatable bass. He has a pretty amusing YouTube “show” called InflatableMinute, in which he explores his and other balloon artists’ work (see the Rubber Tree Quartet clip below), and he also has pursued a global project called Balloon Hat, in which he travels around the globe making balloon hats and taking beautiful photos of them on the heads of people that have in some cases probably never even seen a balloon, let a lone a balloon hat. The juxtaposition can be be an odd combination of comical and beautiful (see photos below) and somehow convey a clear message of human love.

All photos are from BalloonHat.com

The Rubber Tree Quartet:

If you’re intrigued by the Rubber Tree Quartet clip above, you might want to check out Stan Wood and his Vibraband and Fran Holland, Balloon Organist

Unrelated “scary man with rubber glove” bonus photo:

This is Linsey Pollak, who plays the Rubber Glove bagpipe
As far as we know, he has nothing to do with the Rubber Tree gang.