‘Europe in 8 Bits’, A Documentary Exploring the World of Chiptunes
Europe in 8 Bits is a documentary directed by Javier Polo that explores the world of chiptunes, sometimes known as chip music, a genre of electronic music that uses emulated or actual sounds from old computers and video game consoles. The film specifically focuses on the spread of the genre in Europe, and the full 76-minute documentary is currently available to rent on Vimeo.
The stars of this musical movement reveal to us how to reuse old videogames hardware like Nintendo’s GameBoy, NES, Atari ST, Amiga and the Commodore 64 to turn them into a tool capable of creating a new sound, a modern tempo and an innovative musical style. This is a new way of interpreting music performed by a great many artists who show their skills in turning these “limited” machines designed for leisure in the 80’s into surprising musical instruments and graphical tools.
images via Europe in 8 Bits