Boards of Canada’s “Olson” Played on a 1959 PDP‑1 — How It Works
Someone programmed a 1959 Programmed Data Processor-1 (PDP-1) to play Boards of Canada’s short, atmospheric track “Olson.” The project was done by Joe Lynch using engineer and Computer History Museum docent Peter Samson’s Harmony Compiler, originally built in the 1960s.
Key links
- Video: YouTube — PDP-1 plays “Olson”
- Project repo and notes: github.com/joeblynch/pdp-1-boc
- About the PDP-1 (Computer History Museum): computerhistory.org/exhibits/pdp-1
- Peter Samson and early PDP-1 music: computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson
How it was done (summary)
Peter Samson’s Harmony Compiler turns program instructions into timed on/off signals for four light bulbs on the PDP-1. Samson repurposed those bulbs as 1-bit DACs (square-wave generators). Joe Lynch translated Boards of Canada’s “Olson” into the Harmony Compiler format, produced a paper tape, and manually fed the punched tape into the restored PDP-1. The bulb signals are downmixed into stereo, emulated/transcribed, and merged into a final audio file.
Why it matters
It’s a stunning blend of music, computing history and hands-on engineering: late‑1950s hardware reproducing 1990s electronic music using a technique from the 1960s. The result is slow, lo‑fi and deeply nostalgic — and a great demonstration of how early computers were repurposed for creative work.
Credits & further reading
- Project: Joe Lynch — github.com/joeblynch/pdp-1-boc
- Peter Samson and Harmony Compiler: computerhistory.org/pdp-1/peter-samson
- Watch the performance: YouTube video
If you’d like, I can add embedded video, images, or a short audio excerpt to the post.