I Dream of Wires

I Dream of Wires is a new documentary about the rise, fall and rebirth of the machine that shaped electronic music: the modular synthesizer. Exploring the synthesizer’s history, the film reveals how innovators like Robert Moog helped build the foundation for the machine. It shows how cheap foreign imports destroyed the synthesizer’s reputation. And it tracks the phenomenal resurgence of high end modular synthesizers being used today by a new generation of musicians, many of them at the forefront of EDM – the electronic dance music genre. Inventors, musicians and enthusiasts talk about their all-consuming passion for the modular synthesizer. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Gary Numan, Morton Subotnick, Carl Craig and John Foxx show off their systems and give insight into why they are inspired to use this volatile but rewarding technology. A new generation of dance and electronic artists including Clark, James Holden and Factory Floor reveal why they’ve embraced the sound and physicality of modular synthesizers. Innovative companies like Modcan and Doepfer, driven by a desire to revive modular synthesizers, discuss how they planted the seeds that have now grown into a major cottage industry. What started out as a “vintage-revival scene” has grown into an underground phenomenon with modular obsessives craving ever more wild and innovative sounds and interfaces. Today, the modular synthesizer is no longer an esoteric curiosity or even a mere musical instrument – it is an essential tool for radical new sounds and a bona-fide subculture.