On the wedge: Love Hultén splices a custom synth into the classic Aston Martin Lagonda

The Swedish electronics designer Love Hultén has garnered a cult following for his repackaged, combined, enhanced and elevated pieces of audio design, ranging from cassette decks to video game consoles.

This new project combines the designer’s love of repurposed machines with an icon of 70s design, the Aston Martin Lagonda. This famously wedge-shaped high-performance saloon was unlike anything on the road when it debuted in 1976. As well as Sir William Towns’s uncompromising exterior styling, the interior also marked the world’s first electronic dashboard, albeit in the form of solid state digital displays and touch sensitive controls.

Commissioned by auto and synth enthusiast Dr Stephan Sigrist of the Zurich-based technology strategists W.I.R.E (Web for Interdisciplinary Research & Expertise), this piece of in-car technology has been custom-made to fit the rear console of a 1985 example of the Lagonda.

Two pieces of contemporary synth gear, including Roland’s ultra-compact Aira T-8 Beat Machine and Aira S-1 Tweak Synth, has been deconstructed and reassembled into two grey metal cabinets, complete with etched labels, traditional toggle switches and a bespoke oscilloscope.

It’s a very DIY form of in-car entertainment, one very much in keeping with the early electronic music that was contemporary with the Lagonda itself (Kraftwerk’s seminal Autobahn had come out just two years before).

There are also parallels with the coachbuilding excesses of the 70s and 80s, when hefty electronics had to be carefully integrated into the consoles and dashboards of ultra-luxury cars.

By taking modern synth tech that was itself spun off from 80s originals - the T-8 is based on Roland's legendary TR-808 drum machine from 1980 and the S-1 was inspired by the 1982 SH-101 synthesizer - Love Hultén has transformed the Lagonda into a retro-futurist’s dream conveyance.

Love Hultén, LoveHulten.com, @LoveHulten

TheWire.ch