Sound out of Paper

The new method of synthesising sound was discovered in 1929 during the work on the first Soviet sound movie directed by Abram Room - "Piatiletka. Plan Velikih Rabot". The group of artists, responsible for the first experimental soundtrack included composer Arseny Avraamov, inventor Evgeny Sholpo and filmmaker Mikhail Tsekhanovsky. When in October 1929 the first roll of the film was developed, the idea was voiced: ‘What if we take some Egyptian or ancient Greek ornaments as a sound track? Perhaps we will hear some unknown archaic music?’ It was at this precise moment that Graphical Sound techniques were invented, which made possible access to sound as a visible graphical trace in a form that could be studied and manipulated such that they could be used to produce any sound at will as well as any polyphonic musical pieces, based on mathematical and acoustical data. The laboratories that were soon created became the first-ever prototypes of the future centers for computer music.