On YouTube there is now a tantalizing video of the Weber Solea
orchestrion in the Cafe Fribourgeois, Bulle, Switzerland.  It has a
case design the like of which I have not seen before.  The case is
triple-fronted.  There are two side cabinets, each with a sumptuous
back-lit animated scene, flanking a smaller central section containing
the roll mechanism underneath a recessed, mirrored niche.  The piano is
clearly visible through the roll compartment doors.

The instrument seems less tall than would normally be the case, and it
appears from the video that the cafe in which it is installed does not
have a very high ceiling.  I assume that this is an example of an
original installation having been provided with special casework,
customized for a specific location.  According to the notes, the
orchestrion was made for the cafe in 1914 and measures 4 metres long,
2.5 metres high, and 1.1 metres deep.  Although the music which it is
playing is (frustratingly) a somewhat dull march, rather than a later
Gustav Bruder arrangement, the instrument sounds as though it is
playing well, with typically crisp and subtle percussion.

This is the only recording of a Weber Solea I have ever heard, and
certainly the only video of one which I have ever encountered on
YouTube.  You can find it at:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjJD468I3y0 

or search for it under "Orchestrion Solea."

I am aware that the Solea uses the same music roll as the Maesto, and I
had thought that the instrumentation was similar but without the
trumpet/saxophone rank.  According to the notes (in French), this Solea
has four ranks of pipes: Flute, Bourdon, Violin and Baryton (which
sounds like a clarinet).

I would be very interested to know whether any MMDer has visited this
cafe, or has any further information concerning this instrument.  It
seems to have escaped all of the reference books.  As with the
Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor Welte, it is fantastic to discover such an
instrument playing in its original location.

Rowland Lee
Lincolnshire, UK