- But I did want to do something that satisfied all aspects of what I wanted to do; like make it experimental pop music and still have aspects of noise, dissonance and rhythmic complexity that are appropriate, and I think should be within pop music.
About 1:45 in, still watching, but I think this quickly paraphrased quote is seriously vital. Too much experimental music doesn't have any balance whatsoever -- it either errs on the side of boredom, seen-it-before tripe, or forays out into a no man's land of chaos that doesn't invite your brain to listen along with a relative minimum of effort.
Later in the documentary one of the engineers is playing a piano and jokes that he played all the parts. -Funny because it's literally beyond human capability.
It's interesting hearing Dan talk about the problems they had with the recoiling of the hammer as it hits the same piano note in rapid succession. The things you don't think about, right? I wonder how that small detail changed the compositions?
I liked what he says about leaving the "inherent properties of the instrument" (I think it was) in the composition -- interesting because the instruments in question are computers and a self-playing piano, and we still love the sounds he makes. The future's here.