soma laboratory
Soma Laboratory’s Enigma is a new synthesizer controlled by metal objects
SOMA Laboratory is bringing a new synthesizer to Superbooth 2026 that has no traditional controls. Sound is shaped entirely by placing and moving metallic objects on the instrument’s surface.
The instrument is called Enigma. SOMA has built a reputation for instruments that reject conventional interface design. The Lyra-8, released in 2016, uses field-effect transistors and responds to touch through a resistive surface rather than a standard keyboard. The Pulsar-23, a tabletop modular, organises its four oscillators around biological and mechanical logic. Enigma takes that philosophy further: there is no fixed control surface at all.
Prototype demonstrations show the interface responds to fractional millimeter movements. Any conductive object placed on the surface becomes a control point. Shift a coin slightly and the sound changes. Add a screw in a different position and the interaction between the two objects alters the timbre. SOMA has described the experience as “somewhere between an instrument and a game of chess.” MIDI and CV clock sync are included for integration into existing setups.
Prototype audio suggests a dense, metallic texture with no obvious pitch centre. The sound responds to the geometry of the objects on the surface, their surface area, conductivity, and spacing. Whether that translates into something musically repeatable or something closer to the Lyra-8’s ambient territory will depend on how much the firmware interprets positional input.
The Lyra-8 has found a place in ambient and industrial production workflows despite its unconventional interface, partly because the range of sounds it produces is consistent enough to be predictable within a session. Whether Enigma offers the same, or whether the freeform nature of the metal-object interface makes precise recall practically impossible, is something Kreimer’s presentation will need to address.
No price or availability has been announced. Superbooth 2026 runs May 7–9 at FEZ-Berlin.
