3 HN users recommended this documentary3 months2013–2019score 3
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it in threads on black MIDI and player pianos as a look at an artist writing tuneful music beyond human playability.
A Pitchfork TV documentary following Dan Deacon in Montana as he finishes his album Bromst. It shows the experimentation behind it, including pieces written for MIDI-driven player pianos.
“He talks about it quite in a bit in a Pitchfork TV video that documented him working on one of his albums, Bromst” (HN, 2019)
A normally electronic musician, Dan Deacon, has used some very complex player piano arrangements. When he recorded his album Bromst, they set up multiple MIDI player pianos to play the midi arrangements. What I found very interesting is that the density of the notes actually builds up to a very full and soothing (to me) sound, when played on the analogue instruments rather than on a computer. This is an album I play when driving through the woods or staring at the stars. There is texture to be heard from all of the hammering keys, but the notes all combine to a smoother and very meditative, calming, uplifting sound. I feel like like that fullness of sound from the analogue instrument allows the listener to here the overarching melodies, rather than focus on how many notes are being played. Here is a link to a documentary about the recording of the album linked to a visual of the pianos playing: [this video]
Documentary on recording Bromst with MIDI-driven player pianos
+1 for Olafur Another artist who has used a specially-crafted MIDI-controlled piano is Dan Deacon. His stuff is not exactly New Classical, though, it's a bit more frenetic and goofy, but quite good. He talks about it quite in a bit in a Pitchfork TV video that documented him working on one of his albums, Bromst: [this video]
Pitchfork documentary of Dan Deacon making Bromst with MIDI pianos
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.
3 Hacker News comments
From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.
Read more