We've seen teasers for this project popping up over the last few weeks - now the story is out. Indeed we went to a screening last night in a cozy cinema.
Bright Sparks is an in depth documentary which covers the human stories behind the most influential electronic musical instruments from the last century. Starting with Moog, we journey through Buchla, ARP, EMS, EDP, Chamberlin and Mellotron, Freeman (string synth). I Monster as well as featuring in the movie have produced an 8 track album that pays tribute to these figures and their machines.
Excerpts from the Bright Sparks Album from I Monster
As we mentioned, we saw the movie last night and it features rare interviews with Alan R Perlman - a very funny guy, Herb Deutsch, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Dennis P Colin, Peter Zinovieff, Ken Freeman, John Bradley, Fred Gardner, Alessandro Cortini, Daniel Miller, Will Gregory, Adrian Utley, Rick Smith, Karl Hyde, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Dave Spiers.
The interviews offer a great deal of insight into the evolution of each of these important instruments, with a lot of previously unheard (by us) back story along the way. Indeed, as far as we know, this is the first time the ARP's Alan R Pearlman has ever spoken on camera about the ARP story.
Produced by dedicated synth enthusiasts Dave Spiers and Chris McLeod, its a labour of love to ensure that some of these guys and gals who formed electronic music history is in some way documented.
The full Bright Sparks movie and album package is available now as a digital download for £15.99/$19.99 from the Bright Sparks website.
A great watch.
Developments for Korg's instrument have been slow but promising.