When the earth quakes, most people run for the closest doorway. Trimpin heads to the studio. The German-born artist-inventor has been generating sounds inspired by oddball sources since he was a kid. So when a tremblor struck his adopted hometown of Seattle, Trimpin tuned in to the sonic chaos. "I had tympani hanging on a catwalk that started to move back and forth, got out of control, and smashed to the floor," he recalls. "Outside, trolley cables came together and created sparks. That was the inspiration to use seismic data as musical material."

So Trimpin designed giant marimbas that translate tremors into ever-shifting compositions. His Seismofone is one of several mind-blowing contraptions featured in the documentary Trimpin: The Sound of Invention (out on DVD in December). The film explores Trimpin's story, from his childhood in the Black Forest through years of obscurity in America working as a fisherman, a circuit board designer, and a Christmas tree salesman to late-in-life acclaim as a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow and recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. "Since childhood, my focus has been on expanding standard listening patterns," he says. "How can we depart from the traditional orchestra?"

A few of his more out-there pieces use technology to extract music from a motley collection of items. Digitally triggered drops of water fall 20 feet and hit glass vessels to make a liquid drum; a 60-foot tower of self- tuning guitars blasts mammoth jams; a computer-controlled pottery wheel becomes a turntable.

For a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, Trimpin embedded violins with infrared sensors. The musicians would wave a CD near the strings to start MP3s of Kronos tunes. Inspiration is everywhere, Trimpin says: "As soon as I see something, I hear it."