Stockholm, Sweden
8-Bit Philharmonic
Video game scores performed live on the original hardware. Circuit-bent NES. Chip-tuned Game Boy. Nine acoustic musicians.
The Hardware Is the Instrument
Circuit-Bent NES
Modified 1985 Famicom units with soldered line-outs and bent oscillator pins. Custom cartridges hold the arrangements. MIDI triggers the playback.
Chip-Tuned Game Boy
Four original DMG-01 units linked via a custom hub. Pulse channels take melody, wave channel carries bass, noise channel handles percussion.
Acoustic Ensemble
Nine players — strings, brass, and woodwinds arranged to color and double the chip's voice. Every arrangement serves the hardware first.
Synced Projection
The gameplay on the wall syncs in real time. Every jump, every boss, every loop — the music lands on every beat of the run.
Next Performances
THE PLAINS OF MARS
Konserthuset Stockholm · Stockholm
The Zelda Medley
The medley with a waiting list longer than the original game's credits. Fourteen minutes stitched from the overworld theme, the dungeon loop, and the fanfare.
The NES's bent triangle channel carries the bass while the strings double the lead. Every note runs on the chip that wrote it.
See What It Sounds Like
Two minutes of what it sounds like when the hardware sings back.
Enter the Theater →What People Say
I heard the dungeon theme on the actual NES and I was eight years old again, in a good way.
Came back for the Metroid set the next month.
You can hear the chip straining and it is the best part. No sampler does that.
Drove from Uppsala for the Zelda medley.
The projection synced so tight I forgot the orchestra was live until the strings swelled.
Bought tickets for the whole spring run.
