The Boston Typewriter Orchestra, a “collective endeavor [that] engages in rhythmic typewriter manipulation,” has put out a new, original track and it is clackety clack to the max. (Whatever that means.) Listen to the orchestra perform “Unprisoning Your Think R.H.I.N.O.” below. And be prepared for the urge to turn literally anything near you into a musical instrument.
The song, which comes via Laughing Squid, was performed for Great Big Story. Great Big Story is a global media company “devoted to cinematic storytelling” headquartered in New York. The BTO performed this special, little concert for the media company as a follow-up to a video the latter made about the former in 2017.
Great Big Story
That 2017 video (below) explores the BTO’s background and gives a much better sense of who these orchestra members are and how they think. Alex Holman, one member of the group, notes in the video that the orchestra is an ensemble for typewriter sounds and voice. Some of the members have musical backgrounds while others don’t. Holman also says that most of the typewriters the orchestra uses are 50 to 70 years old, but can still be used as musical instruments for roughly two to three years.
As far as “Unprisoning” itself, the song is obviously a masterpiece of typewriter-made music. Of course, there’s not a lot of other typrewriter-made music to which it can be compared—at least that we could find after a cursory internet search. But there are some more BTO tracks online, such as “The Revolution Will Not Be Typewritten.”
What do you think about the Boston Typewriter Orchestra and its clackitique fantastique music? Is “Uprisoning” literally music to your ears, or do you just keep hearing background sounds from the offices in Mad Men? Get your keyboards going in the comments, people!
Feature image: Great Big Story