Mad Scientists of Music Documentary

Ireland is home to a variety of underground music scenes, from electro acoustic, to new music to noise to free improv. I've interviewed dozens of Irish experimental musicians who are pushing the boundaries of what music is and can be. This series takes you on a tour of the fringes of music, and introduces you to a world of new sounds. It focuses in particular on circuit bending, chiptune and collaborative music.

The show explores the world of Circuit Bending, Chip Tune, and Electroacoustic music in Ireland. Low cost technology, recycled instruments and a new attitude to tinkering embodied by the ‘maker movement’ are helping to reinvent music. A new generation of Irish musicians raised around computers, the internet and video gaming, see noise as something to be hacked, taken apart, and reconstructed. These artists build their own instruments, whether by recycling toy keyboards, modifying video game consoles, or attaching electronics to traditional stringed instruments. They often share their music online for free, and in doing so challenge our ideas about copyright and ownership. Their playful attitude to technology finds new uses for obsolete devices and brings the collaboration of musicianship to engineering and the arts.