Monkeys + Synthesizers
A common accusation hurled at electronic musicians like me is that anybody can do what we do. “It’s all in the technology, innit, like” and so forth. “Monkeys could do that!”
Well, now there is cold, hard evidence of how wrong these naysayers are.
This superb short film was produced to promote Sweden’s top electronic music festival, Voltfestivalen, that takes place on June 9th 2012.
As the makers of the film say…
“Monkeys + Synthesizers is a project where 6 different spieces of monkeys (and some others) were given different synthesizers. Do monkeys like music and do they enjoy creating music?
Humans are the only species on earth that actually compose music. Most birds and some mammals make beautiful sounds, but primarily to scare others away — or to get laid. The project explores if other primates can make music.
In the 60s, the Chimpanzee Congo became famous when he painted abstract paintings that got pretty good reviews by art critics. He had a distinct style in some sort of abstract expressionistic tradition. He liked red a lot but didn’t he like blue. Today, some of his paintings are worth up to 20.000 €.
Since the synthesizers was invented, the musicians have been asked “Is this really making music? You just press a button and out comes music, right?” Well… you do press buttons, twist knobs and faders, but there are endless ways of doing this. That is why the synthesizer probably is the greatest musical instrument in history. A great example of human ingenuity and engineering — something that makes us different from the monkeys.”
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