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BarcodeComment: Technology-art-1401-human-ibm-computer-2066361369
Profound and stunning marriage of art and technology . . ., March 5, 2007
4ad / Ada
Ibm1401-A Users ManualI ran across this release almost by accident. It was reviewed in an obscure corner of a website I visit infrequently, and I'm not sure how I wound up there. I read the review and listened to the sample, and I had to have it.Music fascinates me, and so does old technology. This album includes phantasmal electronic sounds recorded by placing a radio receiver next to, as you might guess from the title, the memory stack of an IBM 1401 computer. The IBM 1401, one of the first affordable business computers, was in service from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, and the recordings were made by the composer's father.The clinical computer background is overlaid by a warm, gentle, entirely human arrangement of strings. It challenges the listener to compare these two very different human acheivements, and to embrace the art in the technology while simultaneously acknowledging the technology in the art. This concept is brought into sharp relief on track three, where...
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| I ran across this release almost by accident. It was reviewed in an obscure corner of a website I visit infrequently, and I'm not sure how I wound up there. I read the review and listened to the sample, and I had to have it.Music fascinates me, and so does old technology. This album includes phantasmal electronic sounds recorded by placing a radio receiver next to, as you might guess from the title, the memory stack of an IBM 1401 computer. The IBM 1401, one of the first affordable business computers, was in service from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, and the recordings were made by the composer's father.The clinical computer background is overlaid by a warm, gentle, entirely human arrangement of strings. It challenges the listener to compare these two very different human acheivements, and to embrace the art in the technology while simultaneously acknowledging the technology in the art. This concept is brought into sharp relief on track three, where... | 29 | ||
| inspired by a computer,put your headphones on and your mind will do the rest,classical in style using voice and orchestra,it is a slow evolving dream like music in five movements,you may never hear any thing this ellegant again,two years on,i'm absorbed by it. | 27 | ||
| For some reason or another, I held off on buying IBM 1401 - A User's Manual right away. The reviews that I read on the piece were somewhat spotty, and while I enjoyed Jóhann Jóhannsson's first two albums Englaborn and Virðulegu Forsetar, his more recent Dis album left me a bit cold. As it turns out, I was a bit dumb for not seeking out this album a little sooner, as it's another gorgeous modern classical entry from Jóhannsson. The story behind the release is interesting, and definitely worth retelling, as Jóhannsson's father worked for IBM in Iceland roughly 40 years back when they got their first 1401 Data Processing System. Also a musician, his father managed to program the machine so that it emitted electromagnetic waves in patterns that could be picked up by radio receivers. When the machine was put out of commission and replaced roughly five years later, his dad gave it a little ceremony that included playing some of the music he'd written... | 145 | ||
