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A Robot Orchestra Grows In Brooklyn

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In the past few months, we've been taking little journeys together in the morning to some obscure places that turn out to be wondrous in ways we might not have expected. Our travel guide is David Plotz from the website Atlas Obscura, and this morning, he's taking us to meet some musicians.

DAVID PLOTZ: In Red Hook Brooklyn, there's an old Norwegian sailors' church. And it's been taken over by an artist collective. In particular, by one artist named Chico MacMurtrie who has built himself a delightful collection of robots, and they're an orchestra.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PLOTZ: Each of the robots has a way of making sounds. Some of them drum, some of them play strings.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PLOTZ: For the lucky few people who get to see a concert of these robots, there is something almost divine about it. It's not that it's holy, but it's absolutely other worldly. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

David Plotz

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