Meet The Man Who Uses Robotics To Make Music!

Meet Moritz Simon Geist, the man who uses robotics to make music. He is an upcoming DJ of sorts who is making huge waves at the moment with his innovative methods. His background displays him as a classical musician as well as a talented robotics engineer, an incredible combination it turns out. Geist has a variety of different very impressive musical creations including his kinetic sculptures and his immersive MR-808 interactive, which essentially allows members of the audience to program drum patterns and hear them in real time. Geist, despite his classical history, now performs techno music at his shows, but instead of the boring old act of reaching for a laptop, he calls upon his group of sonic robots! These little guys are an array of small-motorized creations that click and buzz-creating often stunning mechanical symphonies.

The type of music that Geist produces is known as robotic electronic music and is somewhat of a fleeting genre in which instead of software, the hardware is used to create the electronic futuristic sounds. He does, in fact, have an upcoming project in the pipeline, an EP called “The Material Turn” which is set to debut in October displaying 4 tracks made completely from self-made instruments.

Watching Geist make these beats is admittedly slightly strange, there is a moment of “this can’t possibly sound as good as a digital DJ” which is then proven wrong almost immediately. He is constantly running around tinkering everything to sound just how he wants it through the means of moving around glass bottles and other unexpected items.

Geist originally grew up playing the guitar, clarinet and the piano therefore when he discovered a passion for techno music in the 1990s he couldn’t help but think “I wish there was something I could touch”. Obviously, he had great initiative because he did exactly that. Each of his impressive improvisational instruments is made in his workshop in Dresden, Germany, some of them are designed to make certain classic sounds whereas others are more flexible in sound.

Geist is garnering a decent amount of attention at the moment but is still undoubtedly underground as an artist, he still has a long way to go to change the future of music making. As for robotic music, it is not a new idea and has been a major curiosity for music makers for as long as artists could put things together. In fact, the first self-playing piano was invented in the mid 19^th century, it used air valves to inflate a bellows and thump keys to make it look and sound as if the piano was playing itself. This would later be followed by Vaucansons mechanical flute player along with Phonoliszts self-playing violin. Self-playing instruments remained a fascination up to today, but obviously with advanced technology, now is a better time than ever to really show the world what these incredible machines can do.