Vintage computers set to make music

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A collection of vintage computers housed at the National Museum of Computing are being put to an unusual use as a set of instruments for an electronica concert.

Matthew Applegate, a classically trained musician known by the performance name of Pixelh8, has been given access to 20 vintage computers housed at the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. Applegate is employing the sounds emitted by the various geriatric computers to create a electronica composition with the title ‘Obsolete’.

The musician said he was captivated and inspired by the various sounds of machines such as Colossus, famous as the world’s first programmable computer. "[Collosus] usually has a set rhythm and a set sound, but that day it was running a different algorithm and some of the panels for the relays had been removed, and the sound was very different," Applegate said. "I quickly set up my recording equipment and was delighted with the new sounds that I captured."

Other machines involved in the unusual work include the Elliott 803, a 4kb memory workhorse from the 1960s, a 1970s card punch machine and a 1980’s BBC Micro.

If musical old-school computers is your thing you can find out more at the National Museum of Computing website.

Or listen to the music below:

Pixelh8 "Obsolete?" from Pixelh8 on Vimeo.

Last year, an appeal was launched after the museum’s home at Bletchley Park faced threat of closure.

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