Faemi Mini, another russian instrument I had back in the day.
I found this unit at a flea market in Lahti sometime in late 90's. It came in a brown shoulder-strapped vinyl carrying bag. It was really easy to imagine how a little prodigy would be carrying her / his instrument in it on the way to the virtuoso monophonic playing class.
These imaginations are not totally unjustified, since -despite the looks - there is something strangely professional about Faemi mini.
The price was 20 Finnish marks, little over 3 euros. I had it customized with power supply and audio connector which set me back about six times what I paid for the instrument itself, but it was well worth it.
Faemi mini is a curious little beast. The sounds it makes are RAW: powerful, unstable and fascinating. The organ style rocking switches give a surprisingly large variation of timbres for such a small instrument, way more than you'd think for something that looks like it is intended for children. I have never seen the mythical "Telstar" keyboard Clavioline in flesh, but it seems that these two keyboards share some tonal qualities.
Interestingly, if you open the machine you find that each key has a screw for tuning them independently. Not that this helped me in any way, I never got Faemi to play in proper tune. I later passed this keyboard to Jari Suominen (of Shogun Kunitoki fame) who already had one and had also been using it in his band.
Here is what the very same Faemi looks like nowadays as part of Mr. Suominen's gig setup:
Faemi mini at Ruskeys.net
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