EKO - ComputeRhythm (1972)

Video demonstration of a rare drum machine made in Italy in 1972. The step sequencing predates the Roland TR-808. It has been famously used by Jean-Michel Jarre, Manuel Gottsching and Tangerine Dream. "The Rhythm Controller was a surprise -- it came from Italy, from a company called EKO, who made all these cheap warehouse organs. They had come up with this science-fiction-looking machine, a console with eight rows of 16 big knobs which lit up! It worked like a sequencer, which was great, because there were no drum machines in those days. I could programme a rhythm that the machine could remember. It was completely analogue -- you pushed the buttons and they made the contact -- and it was polyphonic! The lights blinked, like on an early Moog sequencer. And when the sequence or rhythm was still running I could change it -- I could delete, skip, and change the rhythm while it was playing. I always liked this aspect of any sequencer. The internal sounds were pretty lousy, but the control panel looked great, and was nice to operate. Later, I built trigger outputs and triggered other synths with the thing, so it became a controller. Years later, I saw Manuel Goettsching play it live on stage in Paris". - Chris Franke.