Must-see electronic music doc to make Toronto debut

The Toronto music documentary that everyone is talking about is finally coming home. I Dream of Wires is an independent (let's not say indie for clarity) doc directed by Robert Fantinatto and Jason Amm that traces the lineage of the noble and hard to comprehend modular synthesizer in a film that's surprisingly straightforward and engaging. The history of electronic music is wound up in I Dream of Wires's modular love-in, and it's a can't-miss for Toronto music fans.

Debuting earlier this year at Moogfest, the film goes all out, connecting with electronic music celebs Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Gary Numan, Vince Clarke (Erasure), Morton Subotnick, Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle), Daniel Miller, Carl Craig, Flood, Cevin Key (Skinny Puppy), Deadmau5, and more.

Claims that analog synths sound like "tearing the fabric of universe" and tales of the intriguing people behind the bleep bloop era (like a NASA scientist who went on to coat modular hardware panels with LSD) mean it's no surprise word of the film is spreading beyond fringe synth fetishists and into the radar of mainstream fans. Wires also explains that whole mysterious "east coast / west coast" modular division thing that seems like a really big deal to synth nerds. If you want to know what that is, you'll have to see for yourself this weekend.

I Dream of Wires' Toronto premiere is Saturday (August 23) at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, with Fantinatto in attendance for a Q&A, plus a live modular synthesizer performance by Keith Fullerton Whitman.