The flutter accordeon

The flutter accordeon is an extremely rare instrument. We do mention it just to inform you about its existance, but we doubt whether you ever could find one. This accordeon was built in the years 1950, by Fratelli Crosio, a famous family of accordeon builders in Stradella, Italy.

The instrument has a piano keyboard and one grill shift. The bellows open and close from a hinge-point at the bellows center. It has no bass notes, but only a large handle where the bass section should be. The shift does not provide unison or octave sound, but rather an unusual fluttering of the acoustic reeds. This is why the instrument is called a "flutter accordeon".

A flutter accordeon has single tongue reeds, air being circulated by the bellows in only one direction over the tongues. The shift closes the internal air-supply-hole of a secundary pan with a weighted pallet-like flapper that starts and stops airflow to the reeds at a rate of about five movements per second. When engaged, the instrument sounds much like a harmonica.
Unlike a normal instrument, these bellows allow dynamic variations. The balancing bellows allow regulating a more uniform air flow.

There is not much information to be found about this instrument, but we are glad we could let you know about its existance.

sources: http://www.ksanti.net/free-reed/flutterbox.html
              http://www.coupemondiale.org/2013/ca_report_22.html