The secret history of Soviet space-age electronic music!
Welcome
to the weird world of avant-garde rock musicians, DIY circuit benders,
vodka-swilling dealers and urban archaeologists/collectors, all
fascinated with obsolete Soviet-era electronic synthesizers. This
strange universe of “cosmic chill-out tunes,” Space Age dance music and
electronic chirps & tweets has been rescued by directors Elena
Tikhonova and Dominik Spritzendorfer in this fascinating documentary
incorporating rare archival footage, including the last 1993 interview
with famed inventor Leon Theremin. In a bizarre twist, many of these
instruments were a by-product of the Soviet military and KGB, created
in the off-hours by scientist/inventors cobbling together spare
transistors and wires to make their own synthesizers – including
Theremin’s Rube Goldberg-esque “Rhythmicon” from 1932, the world’s
first rhythm machine, described by a museum curator as “space wreckage.”
Rooting through discarded storage units for cracked and yellowing
keyboards, pulling apart cheap toys and re-wiring their inanely
cheerful voice boards, these guerrilla circuit benders are creating new
cosmic sounds from these forgotten “instruments with expanded abilities.