Domo Arigato, Maestro Roboto

April 14, 2007 2:29 AM

Oskar, Ernest and Anatole are Les Music-Robots, a four ton punchcard controlled trio currently playing at the Berlin Museum for Communication. [More inside]
posted by zamboni (5 comments total)

Robot musicians have been around for a long while. Player pianos and organs appeared in the late 19th century, drawing on the technology of the Jacquard loom, but eventually were supplanted by recording technology. Les Music-Robots, conceived by their creator Edouard Diomgar during World War II, are a saxophone/accordion/drums trio dating back to the 1950s, but try to keep up with the times.
More recent (and less anthropomorphic) performers include the creations of LEMUR, Trimpin, Ensemble Robot, the Theremin playing ISAC, and other more corporate contributions.
Robots even play at playing music.

For more on the history of musical robots, see here.
via wmmna. Previously.
posted by zamboni at 2:29 AM on April 14, 2007

Also, next time you have a big party, and your neighbours punish you the next morning by cranking up the tunes, spare a thought for Mark Hambourg and Anna Held, who started the whole thing off in 1898.

"... the creature hired a pianola and made it play exactly the same pieces of music that I was working at, and with devilish ingenuity she would put on this wretched instrument whenever I started to practice."
posted by zamboni at 2:39 AM on April 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Q: What type of music do four ton robots play?
A: What ever type they want.
posted by BostonJake at 4:37 AM on April 14, 2007

If you ever find yourself in Utrecht, the Nationaal Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement has all the mechanical music you could hope for.
posted by scruss at 5:59 AM on April 14, 2007

I like to think that after a late-night gig, those three guys have a quick glass of mineral oil, then go find Chuck E. Cheese and kick his face in.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 6:47 AM on April 14, 2007