The Alberta Jerks

What is this

A pumpjack nods. Up and down, all day, in a field off the highway. Out here they call them nodding donkeys, horseheads, grasshoppers. Watch a row of them long enough and they start to look like a rhythm section that never got a drummer.

So here is the band. Each row of lamps is one rig. Light a lamp and that rig jerks through a stroke on that step and makes its noise: a thump, a clank, a gas hiss, two creaks and a singing guy wire. Chinook does what the real one does: it warms everything up and loosens the timing.

Every sound is made in your browser on the spot. There are no recordings, no files, and no tracking. The link you share holds the whole pattern, so nothing is stored anywhere.

Keys: Space start or stop, C chinook, arrow keys move between lamps.