Jóhann Jóhannsson reuneix dues de les meves fílies, música marciana i retrocomputing, en una peça estranyament dolça i èpica. Una mostra.
The story of Iceland´s first computer and its music and how it reflected the emotional attachment of the engineers and programmers to this computer was tremendously interesting to me. The IBM computer was humanized by giving it a very human quality, the ability to "sing". The anthropomorphism was complete when the machine reached obsolescence. Instead of simply discarding it, the engineers gave it a funeral of sorts. They held a ceremony to commemorate its "life", work and songs. Burying the dead is one of the things that distinguish humans from animals. Funeral rites are only granted to something which was once alive. I got a strong impression that the engineers came to regard this computer as a living being (if only unconsciously) because they gave it certain very human qualities. [...]
[...]Hammond B3 organ, piano, celeste and bells were played by Jóhann Jóhannsson. Voices were provided by Erna Ómarsdóttir, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and an unknown instructor from an IBM 1401 Data Processing System maintenance instruction tape found in my father´s attic.
All electronic sounds were derived from the IBM 1401 Data Processing System and the Hammond B3 organ with Ring Modulator, Distortion and Filter pedals. The music and sounds of the IBM 1401 Data Processing System were recorded by Jóhann Gunnarsson, Örn Kaldalóns and Elías Davíðsson in Reykjavik in 1971. The musical fragment played by the computer is from the hymn “Ísland Ögrum Skorið” by Sigvaldi Kaldalóns, used by kind permission. The text in 5 is from a poem by Dorothy Parker.
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