Weather feels inherently musical. The light percussion of rain eases many to sleep; the deep bass of thunder demands attention.

“The weather by itself is kind of an acoustic experience every day,” says Mr. Quintron, New Orleans’ new age musical Wonka. Over his career, Quintron has built a reputation as a DIY-synthesizer creator. Some of his instruments—like the Drum Buddy beat machine—have been picked up by musicians as big as Wilco and Fred Armisen. But his latest creation sits squarely in “one of a kind” territory, even if the basic concept existed forever.

Now on tour, meet the Weather Warlock. Its sound combines the trance-iness of monastic chant, the pulsing of electronica, and bizarre voicings reminiscent of The Flaming Lips. Quintron says he always had the idea, long wanting to create a weather-controlled drone synthesizer. But the musician only dedicated himself to it fully when illness (later revealed to be lymphoma) required him to cancel tours in favor of rest and treatment in 2013. The experience strongly influenced what the Weather Warlock grew into. Hosted through weatherfortheblind.org, the synth streams constantly so that anyone who could benefit from drone musical healing may access it around the globe. (The site's name references a circadian rhythm sleep disorder suffered by many visually impaired persons.)

“Our hope is that this instrument could be of some help to those experiencing any type of sleep disorder or to anyone suffering from stress or health issues which might benefit from a direct musical connection to nature," according to the project's description.

“[That experience] got me into the science of healing drone and healing powers of music,” Quintron told Ars. “Today I’ve gotten e-mails from people around the country saying it’s helping them with this or that—stress, sleeping disorders, mental issues. So if it’s helping in any little tiny way, for anyone, good. And if it’s annoying you can always turn it off.”

In total, the Weather Warlock took three years to develop. “I listened, I’d build a prototype, listen, and rebuild,” he said. The instrument maker eventually took a residency with the arts-oriented Rauschenberg Foundation in Florida to finish his device. And according to NOLA.com, Quintron even explored the idea of partnering with Jack White's Third Man Records to create a modular version that could be mass-produced like some of his previous creations ("Something your grandmother could buy at the hardware store," he told the paper).

But Quintron ultimately settled on a more sophisticated Warlock. It has a traditional synthesizer-looking base station (albeit with knobs reading “Rain” and “Sun”) that links up with seven-foot-tall weather stations. And Quintron has ambitions to find interested parties—artists, museums, libraries, etc.—to build more base stations around the world “so that listeners may experience musical interpretations of a variety of different climates and time zones,” the project site notes.

New Orleans journalist Michael Patrick Welch profiled Quintron for The Guardian recently, and the musician provided the best public description of the weather sensor setup to date.

A global temperature sensor controls a grinding bass note that continuously cycles through a phase that moves faster in the heat, slower in the cold. The anemometer measures wind speed via spinning cups that send out a digital pulse like you hear in submarine movies. A periscope aimed at the sky hosts a UV sensor: ‘It’s specially calibrated to remain silent and only emit sound when in the flux between light and dark—only at sunrise and sunset, except on that rare storm,’ Quintron told Welch. Precipitation and rain are represented by a set of brass probes set just a millimeter apart. ‘When a raindrop falls between the two probes it connects them together, and makes a sound that’s determined by the chemical makeup of the rain; some days the rain is more metallic and more conductive.’

This month, Quintron finally took the Warlock out for its first official US tour (tonight’s Oakland performance takes place at an old church; more dates here). While any show involving Quintron and Miss Pussycat—his wife, fellow musician, and puppeteer—qualifies as a true spectacle, the Weather Warlock performances stand out as unique.

“It doesn’t really play a song,” Quintron said of the autonomous synth. “So Weather Warlock is an improvisational band that performs with this machine at sunset and only at sunset. We just let the Warlock do its thing, all in E-major.” The unusual timing allows Quintron to maximize changes in weather, and he recruits a rotating cast of local musicians across genres to ensure the improvised experience remains different nightly.

“This isn’t the kind of band that’s going to be like, ‘Hey la li la, doo wah—here’s our next weather song. Doo wah,’” he said. “It’s an event that happens only at sunset with different players in every city. It’s different every time. It’s not that kind of band… it’s improvisational music with… god.”

Despite the currently limited spring dates, Quintron says a full Weather Warlock tour will happen this fall. And even if interested music fans can’t make it out to see all this live, the Warlock continues to stream and Quintron now offers a special Warlock 12” alongside his regular recordings. The A-side features his local band performing with the machine in a New Orleans-area field while the B-side consists solely of the Warlock doing its thing.

“My band in NOLA composed a piece set to that idea,” Quintron said. “I guess you could call it a song, but it’s a 25-minute jam really.” As with any projects involving the musician, descriptions can only do so much justice. The best option remains experiencing it firsthand.

Listing image by Flickr user: Danny Norton