---
title: Continuum
description: The Haken Continuum Fingerboard, Sarth Calhoun’s instrument since Lucibel Crater: Lou Reed’s band, Metal Machine Trio, Yellow Pony, Lulu. Made by Lippold Haken, Champaign, Illinois.
url: https://www.sarth.net/devices/continuum/
facet: machine
credit: Sarth Calhoun plays the Haken Continuum Fingerboard: in Lucibel Crater, in Lou Reed’s band from 2008, in Metal Machine Trio with Reed and Ulrich Krieger, in Yellow Pony with Reed and Laurie Anderson, and on *Lulu*; Wikipedia’s Continuum article names him among its players.
author: Sarth Calhoun
---
[Devices](/devices/) / Continuum

Device · Machine

# Haken Continuum Fingerboard

A surface that tracks the fingers in three dimensions: continuous pitch, not keys. My instrument since Lucibel Crater, in Lou Reed’s band, Metal Machine Trio, Yellow Pony and *Lulu*.

The Continuum Fingerboard is a long neoprene playing surface that tracks finger position and pressure in three dimensions. Continuous pitch, not keys. Full-size or half-size, and often driving [Kyma](/devices/kyma/). Maker: [Lippold Haken](/conspirators/lippold-haken/), Haken Audio, Champaign, Illinois. [hakenaudio.com](https://www.hakenaudio.com/)

It has been my instrument since [Lucibel Crater](/conspiracies/lucibel-crater/) and through the Reed years. In [Metal Machine Trio](/conspiracies/metal-machine-trio/), Lou and I both had Continuums onstage. [Yellow Pony](/conspiracies/yellow-pony/): Continuum plus live resampling of Reed and Anderson’s voices. [*Lulu*](/conspiracies/lulu/): dual Continuum improvisations with a live string section. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_Fingerboard) names me as an advocate.

![Sarth Calhoun playing a Haken Continuum Fingerboard.](/images/continuum.jpg)

Sarth Calhoun at the Continuum.

> I lost sleep. I even dreamt about it last night. It was one of those thousands-of-people-watching nightmares.
> 
> Lippold Haken, after watching Sarth Calhoun play the Continuum at Lollapalooza, quoted on [sarth.net, 2010](https://web.archive.org/web/20101030053745/http://www.sarth.net/category/bio/)

## Conspiracies

The Continuum is on [Lou Reed Live at Lollapalooza 2009](/transmissions/lou-reed-live-at-lollapalooza-2009/), credited “electronics & continuum,” across [Lou Reed’s song band](/conspiracies/lou-reed-song-band/), [Metal Machine Trio](/conspiracies/metal-machine-trio/), [Yellow Pony](/conspiracies/yellow-pony/) and [*Lulu*](/conspiracies/lulu/), on [Introspections](/transmissions/introspections/), and on the [Lucibel Crater](/conspiracies/lucibel-crater/) records. Symbolic Sound’s post [Walking the road that only you can see](https://news.symbolicsound.com/2012/10/walking-the-road-that-only-you-can-see/) is one take of Continuum, Kyma and Ableton amp modelers. The photograph of me at it is on [About](/about/).

The credit: Sarth Calhoun plays the Haken Continuum Fingerboard: in Lucibel Crater, in Lou Reed’s band from 2008, in Metal Machine Trio with Reed and Ulrich Krieger, in Yellow Pony with Reed and Laurie Anderson, and on *Lulu*; Wikipedia’s Continuum article names him among its players.

The entry is the one that stood on the Devices page. Lippold Haken’s line is from my old site’s biography, archived in 2010.