New Korg synthesiser gallery opens at the Musical Museum

18 September 2024

The Musical Museum (Brentford, London) has opened a new gallery dedicated to Korg synthesisers and drum machines.

The museum's original collection tells the story of recorded and reproduced music. It includes a Violano, a combination of a violin and a 44-key piano which plays itself using music rolls. The Orchestrion from 1910 is a coin-operated mini-orchestra, performing music rolls with its built-in piano, xylophone, glockenspiel, drums, cymbal and triangle. The first thing you see when you arrive at the museum is a cabinet dedicated to Fisher Price toys, including the record player I loved as a child with its colourful disks of nursery rhymes.

Now, the collection has been brought up to date with a room packed with Korg instruments, many of which include sequencers for automating the playback of music parts. The killer feature? They're here to be played! A museum staff member said that you can ask for any of them to be switched on.

As well as modern instruments such as the Volca series of affordable and compact synths, there are classic synths such as the Korg MS-20 (with a wonderful oversized blackboard variant for use in Japanese classrooms), the Electribe sampler, and the Korg M1, which was used on Madonna's Vogue. At the launch event yesterday, visitors had an opportunity to try the PS-3300 recreation for the first time in the UK. This is an upcoming reissue of 1977's ultra-rare synth, used by Jean-Michel Jarre and Gary Numan, now with some added preset buttons to get you started.

The main gallery also has an original 1930 theremin you can play, and a concert hall with a Wurlitzer. This was masterfully demonstrated yesterday with a performance that included a song from The Phantom of the Opera and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

The museum is well worth visiting if you have an interest in electronic music or recorded music. There are three main rooms in the museum, including the new Korg gallery, making it one of London's smaller museums. They are currently running a fundraiser and are interested in meeting new volunteers, so get in touch if you think can help.

Thank you to the museum staff and volunteers, performing musicians and the team from Korg for a great day at the launch event yesterday.

Play my album Artificial, which explores what happens beyond artificial intelligence when the machines get emotions. My novel Earworm tells the story of a record label that uses computer-generated music to manipulate both artists and fans.

The gallery is organised chronologically, with posters and promotional materials displayed above the instruments.

For the first time in the UK, the PS-3300 recreation.

A bank of Korg Volca devices you can tinker with. Some of these are also on sale in the museum shop.

The Korg MS-20 Blackboard version, mounted on the wall. How cool would it have been to have had one of these in your classroom?

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