Ten Great ARP appearances

OK, not all of these are directly about the ARP Odyssey, but some are just too good not to mention…

01 THE FIRST SYNTH TO GREET ALIENS

The scenario might be the stuff of fantasy: aliens make contact with humans atop the strange Devil’s Tower (actual place). But in what is probably the greatest idea anyone could have ever, the humans’ first reaction is to play them some synth music on an ARP 2500. We think the finest thing you could do to ease into a relationship would be to play some early Tangerine Dream or Jean-Michel Jarre – we do exactly this when we form relationships with other humans, so know what we’re talking about – and top marks for whoever thought of this. The ARP 2500 plays the famous ‘da da da, do, daa’ theme which [SPOILER ALERT] the aliens like so much, they decide to return some people who they’d essentially kidnapped, and then take some replacements just for good measure (and probably hugely painful genetic experiments). Would the same thing have happened if Bieber had been blaring through the speakers?

02 THE FIRST SYNTH VOICED BY ALIENS

If you think ARP’s alien connection is pretty cool with Close Encounters, then the sci-fi story continues with R2-D2, possibly the most famous robot in our galaxy’s history and – because we’re actually starting to believe that the whole Star Wars saga actually happened – that of a galaxy far, far away. Yes, he/she/it/they spoke ‘ARP’! The diminutive star of Star Wars (and the real star if you think about it) was voiced by an ARP 2600. We can only assume that ARP’s PR company must have been very closely involved with Hollywood at the time. To have your synth involved in one iconic sci-fi film is lucky, but two? Careless…