5 wild facts about the Soviet ANS synthesizer

It could generate 720 distinct microtones simultaneously, far exceeding the polyphony of most commercial synthesizers.

Composers used a non-drying black mastic to draw soundwaves, allowing them to smudge and edit instantly.

The machine was named after Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, a composer obsessed with color and sound.

Only one working version of this mysterious, mainframe-sized instrument has ever existed at any given time.