Electric Hills: The Italian Synth History Hidden in the Hills of Marche
The Museo del Synth Marchigiano and The Blink Fish have launched a crowdfunding campaign to complete Electric Hills, a documentary exploring the history of electronic instrument manufacturing in Italy’s Marche region and its influence on music internationally.
Produced by The Blink Fish, the film follows the development of electronic instruments in the region, where traditional craftsmanship and emerging technology came together across workshops and manufacturers.
The story begins with the accordion makers of Castelfidardo before moving through the electric organs of the 1960s, early Italian synthesizers and pioneering drum machines. Companies including Farfisa and Elka feature in the documentary, alongside Fatar, Eko, FBT, Sisme, Viscount and Crumar.
The project brings together rare instruments, archival material and previously unseen interviews, while tracing the people and companies behind the development of electronic instruments in the region.
Electric Hills features musicians, composers, producers, inventors and designers from Italy and around the world, including Jean-Michel Jarre, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, Boosta of Subsonica, Claudio Simonetti of Goblin, Tommaso Colliva, Massimo Martellotta and Enrico Gabrielli of Calibro 35, Hainbach, Look Mum No Computer, Martin Schmidt and Andrew Daniel of Matmos, and Fabrice Quagliotti of Rockets.
Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein, Hainbach, Look Mum No Computer and Boosta have visited the Museo del Synth Marchigiano, where they performed and recorded using instruments from the collection.
The documentary grew directly out of the museum, which was founded by friends, musicians and collectors dedicated to recovering, restoring and preserving electronic instruments manufactured in the Marche. Its collection includes synthesizers, organs and drum machines connected to decades of pop, rock and electronic music.
As musicians, composers and researchers began visiting the museum, the idea developed to document the history of the region and its electronic instrument industry.
Development, pre-production and filming for Electric Hills have already been completed, with the crowdfunding campaign now supporting the remaining post-production work.
The campaign is seeking €40,000 to fund editing, archival licensing, the original soundtrack and music rights, sound design and mixing, colour grading, mastering, subtitles and festival versions.
The campaign operates on a “keep what you raise” basis. The film will be completed regardless of whether the full target is reached, although the campaign states that this could affect the production timeline and amount of archival material used.
Rewards include photographic prints, paper designs and vintage lithographic films from the Bontempi and Farfisa archives, a rare IRIS/Bontempi integrated circuit, a signed film poster and an Apesoft software plug-in licence. The Studio Experience also offers supporters two days of recording at the museum using instruments from the collection.
The screenplay was written by Paolo Bragaglia, composer, performer and founder of the Museo del Synth Marchigiano, with the collaboration of Leonardo Gabrielli and the museum staff. The film is directed by Marco Bragaglia, a filmmaker and visual artist with more than 30 years of experience across cinema and the visual arts, and produced by The Blink Fish.
