The Adventures of Prince Achmed/ The Analog Girl

The Adventures of Prince Achmed/ The Analog Girl

written by Jonathan Fong



Having helmed her own shows locally and abroad, The Analog Girl chalks up another feather in her cap –as part of the two-month Under the Crescent Moon festival organized by the National Museum, The Analog Girl takes on an interpretation of the soundtrack to The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the first surviving full-length animated feature in movie history created by Berlin-born avant-garde filmmaker Lotte Reiniger, based on the fables from the Middle Eastern literary epic, The Arabian Nights.

Despite not being your standard dance-friendly electronica act, The Analog Girl hit the right buttons and keys to get the crowd sold. Besides the essential Macbook, her set-up consisted of other idiosyncratic gadgets like the Nintendo Game Boy, Kaos Pad and mini xylophone, to name a few. 

The repertoire was a seamless mix of breakbeat, trip-hop and “electro-industrial”, with quirky samples from 8-bit video games, jazz and Arabian instruments thrown in. All this eclecticism, of course, was to complement the lush animation of the feature film. Aside from the trademark vocal distortion, The Analog Girl narrated parts from the film, in effect humanising the overall interpretation. 




Combining the magic of a classic animated film with a uniquely Singaporean take on the soundtrack was an experience not to be re-created or missed. Especially so with the National Museum playing host, The Analog Girl and The Adventures of Prince Achmed certainly garnered new fans that night.