BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP - A Retrospective

"50TH ANNIVERSARY RELEASE

DOUBLE CD, RELEASE DATE: 3rd NOVEMBER 2008

Mute are proud to announce the release of a 50th Anniversary Retrospective double CD from the Radiophonic Workshop. This brand new compilation features classic, extremely rare and previously unavailable sounds and music by the legendary BBC organisation. Presented in chronological order, the CD includes works from stalwarts of the Radiophonic Workshop such as John Baker, Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Elizabeth Parker, Desmond Briscoe, Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell and Malcolm Clarke amongst others.

This Retrospective features over 100 pieces of music and sound effects from various BBC TV and Radio shows from 1958 through to 1997. Including work from Quatermass and the Pit, The Goon Show, The Secret War, Blake’s Seven, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Salem’s Lot, The Demon Headmaster, Michael Palin’s Full Circle as well as the original full length Dr Who Theme and the Tardis effects.

Using reel-to-reel tape machines, early heroines such as Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire recorded everyday or strange sounds and then manipulated these by speeding up, slowing down or cutting the tape with razor blades and piecing it back together.

The pioneering techniques were created for and used on a myriad of programmes, with Dr Who being their biggest client. The sound of the Tardis in Dr Who was a sound engineer's front door key scraped across the bass strings on a broken piano. Other impromptu props included a lampshade, champagne corks and assorted cutlery.

Ten years ago the workshop was disbanded due to costs but its reputation as a Heath Robinson-style, pioneering force in sound is as strong as ever, acknowledged as possibly the greatest influence on UK electronic music, influencing the likes of Jon Spencer, Aphex Twin, Daniel Miller, Add N to (x)…. The corporation initially only offered its founders a six-month contract, because it feared any longer in the throes of such creative and experimental exercises might make them ill.

Also released on the same day are the albums BBC Radiophonic Workshop and BBC Radiophonic Music, The BBC Radiophonic Music CD concentrates on the more musical output of the legendary organisation while BBC Radiophonic Workshop deals with the pioneering sound effects and methods used to achieve them.

These releases continue a series that began on The Grey Area of Mute with the release of Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 1: The Early Years 1963-1969 and Volume 2: New Beginnings 1970-1980."

The Return of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as Virtual Institution

Doctor Who (1963) - Original Theme music video

YouTube Uploaded by unstrungzero on Mar 30, 2009

via Atomic Shadow spotted on Wired

"According to the Workshop's site: 'in 2012 as part of thespace.org, an innovative new digital arts media service created in joint partnership between the BBC and the arts council the radiophonic workshop is being reborn'.

It continues: 'Instead of being confined to rooms full of equipment in Maida Vale studios in London, the new Radiophonic Workshop will instead be a virtual institution, visibly manifested as an online portal and forum for discussion around the challenges of creating new sounds in a world saturated in innovative music technology but lacklustre in terms of actual original output. We will primarily bring together two key disciplines: music composition and software design, and as such its members will be drawn from the cutting edge of both.'"

Dr. Who video above:
"From "Doctor Who - The Beginning Collection (1963)" Disc 1

The original full-length theme music, with original 1963 title sequence visual elements.

Composed by Ron Grainer, realized by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop."

The Wobbulator

Note this is a good follow up to this post on The Alchemists of Sound.

via sine in this electro-music.com thread:

"The wooden boxy thing in the front of the picture with the round dail is the workshops wobbulator, the plexi thing on thop of that is the crystal palace, something we woud call a scanner these days."

via Brainstormer in the same thread:
"I've read about one of these devices in a few BBC Radiophonic Workshop related articles. I'm wondering if it would be possible to construct something as unique as this to be used in a modular synthesizer?

I can find very little concise technical information regarding these devices, only application info, so it may be a null discussion point. Unless someone here has a more in-depth knowledge of them?

Here's a few articles that mention the wobbulator:
Quote:
Early on, the Workshop acquired a wobbulator, originally designed for engineering tests but also very useful as a source of raw material. This created a tone whose pitch was continuously varied by a second oscillator, thus providing sweeping waves of sound.
http://whitefiles.org/rws/r02.htm

Quote:
The chief inventor, David Young, came up with contraptions like ‘the Wobbulator’ and ‘the Crystal Palace’ to produce brand-new sound textures, and nothing could ever have been done without the ‘Donotfiddlewith’, a delicate tape-tensioning device made out of Meccano and labelled in felt-tip with an anti-tamper warning.
http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/4493/Fifty_years_of_the_BBC_Radiophonic_Workshop.html

Quote:
But the 'Ooh-ooh-ooh' isn't me… that's wobbulator, pure wobbulator. That's a piece of test equipment that does wave sweeps.
http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/interview_surface.php

Quote:
The melody notes were also recorded individually, and at half-speed to achieve the desired pitch, while the hiss and windbubble effects were created by carefully filtering white noise through a wobbulator.
http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/index2.html

Quote:
They also had a couple of high-quality equalisers (again, test equipment - equalisers, or "tone controls", were not that easy to come by at the time) and a few other gadgets including a "wobbulator" (a low frequency oscillator) and a white noise generator.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_ayres/DWTheme.htm

Quote:
Wobbulating The World
In the early '60s, synthesizers simply did not exist. Producer Joe Meek was using the monophonic, valve-operated Clavioline but the Radiophonic Workshop, oddly enough, never had one. What they did have, though, was all the test oscillators that they could beg, borrow or steal from other BBC departments. A method was devised for controlling 12 oscillators at a time, triggering them from a tiny home-built keyboard of recycled piano keys. Each oscillator could be independently tuned by means of a range switch and a chunky Bakelite frequency knob.

There was also the versatile 'wobbulator', a sine-wave oscillator that could be frequency modulated. It consisted of a very large metal box, with a few switches and one very large knob in the middle that could sweep the entire frequency range in one revolution. They were used in the BBC for 'calibrating reverb times in studios' apparently. And as far as the Workshop's electronic sound sources went, that was it!
Yet, curiously, it is the work produced in those early years that the Radiophonic Workshop's reputation still hangs on. The Doctor Who theme was first recorded in 1963, and still there are fans who insist that the original is the best of many versions made over the years. What's more, some of the sound effects made for the first series of Doctor Who are still being used! When the newly revamped Doctor Who appeared in 2005, hardcore fans recognised the original effects and wrote to Brian Hodgson: "How nice to hear the old original Dalek Control Room again, after all these years!"

Brian's 'Tardis' sound, dating from 1963, is also still used. "I spent a long time in planning the Tardis sound," says Brian. "I wanted a sound that seemed to be travelling in two directions at once; coming and going at the same time." The sound was actually made from the bare strings of a piano that had been dismantled. Brian scraped along some bass strings with his mum's front-door key, then set about processing the recordings, as he describes it, "with a lot of reverse feedback". (By this, I assume he means that tape echo was added, then the tape reversed so that it played backwards.) Eventually, Brian played the finished results to Dick Mills and Desmond Briscoe; at their insistence he added a slowly rising note, played on the wobbulator.
http://musicandculture.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

The enduring magic of the Radiophonic Workshop | Resident Advisor

Published on May 17, 2018 Resident Advisor

"We look back on 60 years of the pioneering electronic music and sound effects workshop.

Visit the RA feature page: https://www.residentadvisor.net/featu...

'It was a place for experimentation,' says Roger Limb, who's been a member of the Radiophonic Workshop since 1972, "full of weird and wonderful sounds which people were not quite sure what to make of." It is easy to forget how mind-bending something like the Doctor Who theme would have sounded back in in the mid-'60s, at a time when almost all music was acoustically derived. Breakthroughs like this were made possible by the pioneering experimentation at the Workshop, which was set up at the BBC in 1958 to record sound effects for radio programming. Techniques were developed on-the-fly using tape manipulation, oscillators and early synthesisers, laying the groundwork for countless musical movements that would come afterwards. The Workshop closed in 1998, but some of its members have continued to channel its spirit into live performances and recorded music. We followed the group to a recent show at the Science Museum in London to hear about the Workshop's 60-year-long journey.

Director / Producer - Sophie Misrahi
Editor - Sophie Misrahi
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke

Director / Producer - Sophie Misrahi
Editor - Sophie Misrahi
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke"

A Radiophonic Weekend - Bristol

Update: The event is in April, not March.

Two day event via Cube Cinema, Saturday April the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd.

"Day one of a weekend of special events, performances, screenings and more - dedicated to the output and legacy of the one and only BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

With their often primitive hand built devices, tape loops and early synth explorations, the workshop brought the sound of electronic weirdness out of the realms of academia and into the home, re-adjusting the ears and minds of an entire generation in the process. As interest in their oddly British, and often somewhat crackpot approach to electronic experimentation grows, and as many of their key instigators finally begin to gain the worldwide recognition their pioneering efforts deserve, we spend a special one-off weekend looking back on some of the characters, stories, sounds and inventions that shaped an era.

On day one (Saturday), we’re delighted to welcome very special guests - Radiophonic boffins, David Cain and Dick Mills - who will be presenting a history of the workshop, discussing their work, and presenting a wealth of material unheard for decades.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Synths of the Radiophonic Workshop

via Andy:
"Thought you might like these pictures of some of the old Radiophonic Workshop synths. I'm working on a show for the BBC Electric proms with Coldcut - they have created a live remix of classic Radiophonic workshop material and we'll be using the old gear along with their stuff.

There's a VCS3, Synthi A, Vocoder, ARP Odessey and the legendary 'Crystal Palace'.We are doing the show next week and it can be heard on Annie Nightingales Radio 1 show and the 6Mix on BBC 6Music, and I think it's being filmed for online as well."

An Interview with Paddy Kingsland of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

You'll find the full interview on Astronauta Pinguim, including mentions of Delia Derbyshire & Daphne Oram.

BTW, today is Paddy Kingsland's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mr. Kingsland!  :)

Pictured: Paddy Kingsland and the EMS Synthi 100 (the Delaware)

"Patrick 'Paddy' Kingsland was born in Hampshire (England) on January 30th, 1947. He took piano lessons in his youth and got his first guitar when he was 15. By this time he also built his own valve amplifier and began to play in a band in his school days. After attending Eggars Grammar School in Alton, Hampshire, Paddy joined the BBC. He was a technician there until, in 1970, he had the chance to join the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the famous department that was responsible for providing the soundtrack and sound effects to BBC radio and TV shows. Paddy worked there for 11 years and created the music for many programs, including "The Changes", "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and several episodes of 'Doctor Who'!

"In 1973, BBC Records released the album 'Fourth Dimenson'. Although it was credited to The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, "Fourth Dimension" is the first solo album released by Paddy Kingsland and includes tracks that he recorded from 1970 to 1973, using mainly the EMS synthesizers VCS3 and Synthi 100 (the Delaware)..."

You can still find the release on Amazon and eBay.

The first synth to enter the BBC? "The first synthesizer arrived in 1970 - an EMS VCS3. It was great for learning about voltage control and making sounds, but no good for playing tunes on. The Arp Odyssey which came a bit later was much better for that."

via Fabricio Carvalho aka Astronauta Pinguim on the MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. You can find interviews with other synth legends on his site or via the Interviews label below.

The Story Of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the Oramics Optical Synthesizer

via Steve Marshall:

"I wrote a 12 page article about the history of the Radiophonic Workshop for the April 08 Sound On Sound and it's now free to read on-line.

As a result of that article being printed, Graham Wrench got in touch - he's the engineer who'd built the prototype Oramic synth for Daphne Oram in the 60's. The current Feb 09 SOS has my new article about Graham and his story. Here's a link, but only to a preview.

Ray White has just put up a new gallery of Radiophonic Workshop pics - some not seen before; http://whitefiles.org/rwg/"

Also see Steve Marshall's SURROUNDHEAD for scans from 70's Studio Sound magazines.


Above: "Daphne Oram with the wobbulator (centre of shot), 1958."

Left: "The unique Oramics synthesizer was controlled by drawing onto 35mm photographic film."

Korg All Access: Radiophonic Workshop at BBC Maida Vale, with the KingKORG, Kronos and MS-20

Published on Jan 31, 2014 Korg·426 videos

"The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music, most famously producing the Dr Who soundtrack.

The original Radiophonic Workshop was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road, London, growing outwards from the then-legendary Room 13.

Now they are back with a band of the same name , with a new album out this year and extensive touring plans, and Korg is a big part of this.

We had exclusive access to this live performance for BBC 6 MUSIC.

To learn more about these great products, head over to http://www.korg.com!"

Daphne Oram documentary - Wee Have Also Sound-Houses & Early BBC radiophonics: Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (1957)

Daphne Oram documentary - Wee Have Also Sound-Houses

YouTube Uploaded by straypixel on Jan 6, 2012

"To mark the 50th anniversary in 2008 of the creation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the programme examines the life and legacy of one of the great pioneers of British electronic music - the Workshop's co-founder Daphne Oram.

As a child in the 1930s, Oram dreamed of a way to turn drawn shapes into sound, and she dedicated her life to realising that goal. Her Oramics machine anticipated the synthesiser by more than a decade, and with it she produced a number of internationally-performed works for the cinema, concert hall and theatre.

Daphne Oram was among the very first composers of electronic music in Britain and her legacy is the dominance of that soundworld in our culture today.

Introduced by Robert Moreby
Produced by Ian Chambers
TX BBC Radio 3, Sun 3 Aug 2008 21:45"


Early BBC radiophonics: Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (1957)

YouTube Uploaded by straypixel on Jan 8, 2012

"An early BBC experiment in radiophonic sound, predating the establishment of the Radiophonic Workshop, created by Frederick Bradnum and Daphne Oram (pictured) and produced by Donald McWhinnie.
TX BBC Third Programme, 07/10/1957.

McWhinnie's spoken introduction (the work starts at 4:20):

"This programme is an experiment. An exploration. It's been put together with enormous enthusiasm and equipment designed for other purposes. The basis of it is an unlimited supply of magnetic tape, recording machine, razor blade, and some thing to stick the bits together with. And a group of technicians who think that nothing is too much trouble - provided that it works.

"You take a sound. Any sound. Record it and then change its nature by a multiplicity of operations. Record it at different speeds. Play it backwards. Add it to itself over and over again. You adjust filters, echos, acoustic qualities. You combine segments of magnetic tape. By these means and many others you can create sounds which no one has ever heard before. Sounds which have indefinable and unique qualities of their own. A vast and subtle symphony can be composed from the noise of a pin dropping. In fact one of the most vibrant and elemental sounding noises in tonight's programme started life as an extremely tinny cowbell.

"It's a sort of modern magic. Many of you may be familiar with it. They've been exploiting it on the continent for years. But strangely enough we've held aloof. Partly from distrust. Is it simply a new toy? Partly through complacency. Ignorance too. We're saying at last that we think there's some thing in it. But we aren't calling it 'musique concrète'. In fact we've decided not to use the word music at all. Some musicians believe that it can become an art form itself. Others are sceptical. That's not our immediate concern. We're interested in its application to radio writing - dramatic or poetic - adding a new dimension. A form that is essentially radio.

'Properly used, radiophonic effects have no relationship with any existing sound. They're free of irrelevent associations. They have an emotional life of their own. And they could be a new and invaluable strand in the texture of radio and theatre and cinema and television.'"

Also see:
Delia Derbyshire - Sculptress of Sound documentary 1 - 7

1969: What Is ELECTRONIC MUSIC? | Workshop | Radiophonic Workshop | BBC Archive

video upload by BBC Archive

Be sure to check out 3:59 on. I won't give it away, but it's interesting they had the same views back then. Note 7:33 for a glimpse of what would come. Finally also see this post for Daphne Oram's Oramics and her Bird of Parallax. See the Oramics label for more.

"What is electronic music? How is it produced?

Desmond Briscoe - the head of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop - enlists the help of Daphne Oram, David Cain and John Baker to explain the fundamentals of synthesised sound.

This clip is from Workshop: The Same Trade As Mozart, originally broadcast 3 August, 1969.

You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of tv to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic tv clips from the BBC vaults."

BugBrand PT Delay - Overview Demo

YouTube Uploaded by BugBrand on Apr 1, 2011

"Running through the functionality of the new PT Delay Box.

For further details check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[Sorry about the audio quality in the 2nd half - I had to use the direct camera sound so things are quite noisy - the are high quality audio samples on the website]"

BugBrand PT Delay Demo - with TR606 & Mono/Poly

Uploaded by BugBrand on Mar 31, 2011

"A little live demo of the new PT Delay box.

The first half is tweaking around with the inputs from Roland TR606 and Korg Mono/Poly.

In the 2nd half I remove the Korg and then turn the 606 up so that it drives into the soft-clipping on the input.

For further details of the PT Delay, check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[I recorded the audio separately from the vid-cam and sync'd them together when editing]"

Update via the BugBrand newsletter:

BugBrand News - Business BDay / PTDelay Day / Toggle Time

"Morning All,

Firstly, this is 100% *not* an April Fool!
April 1st is the anniversary of when I officially launched BugBrand - today is the 6th birthday.
And to mark the occasion I am launching something new which I am pretty excited about!

Also at the end there is mention of a wonderful Radiophonic Workshop event happening this weekend in Bristol + some associated Bug-Modular sounds.

** NEW -> The PT Delay**
http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=103
Introducing a supremely characterful and tactile new Delay Processor based around the infamous PT2399 chip.

This is the culmination of my ongoing works with the wonderful PT Digital Delay chip - yes, the core is digital, but all the surroundings are pure analogue and they've been carefully tweaked to open up a unique variety of sonic fun.

The main features:
- two independent Delay Time settings (65mS to 2.5 Sec) with unique Toggle Time button to switch between them
- Delay Input level control with Punch In button to allow dub-style processing bursts
- Hi/Lo EQ post-delay for extreme sound shaping
- two inputs, versatile output mixing and Send/Return feedback loop
- soft-clipping stages for satisfying overload saturation
- quite an eye catching design!

Lots of demo sounds and a couple of videos now online on the website.

This will be a regular production item with batches appearing every month or two.

**Radiophonic Workshop Weekend**
This weekend at the Cube Cinema, Bristol - http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#5656
An amazing line-up of talks, films and live performances + a kids 'What is Sound?' workshop on the Sunday.

A couple of months ago I asked BugModular users around the world to come up with Radiophonic-inspired interlude pieces and the results will be playing over the weekend.
You can also check the pieces online via the MW-forum: http://muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28584

Daren Ager took the challenge to even higher levels, making a whole album of tracks that he's now released them for digital download to support the Japan Disaster Relief fund.
http://darenager.bandcamp.com/album/bug-phonic
13 tracks for only £1.25 (though you can also donate more if you'd like)"

The New Sound Of Music 1979 - BBC Documentary Featuring EMS & More

YouTube via JeffreyPlaide | October 17, 2010 |

"The New Sound of Music is a fascinating BBC historical documentary from the year 1979. It charts the development of recorded music from the first barrel organs, pianolas, the phonograph, the magnetic tape recorder and onto the concepts of musique concrete and electronic music development with voltage-controlled oscillators making up the analogue synthesizers of the day. EMS Synthesizers and equipment are a heavily featured technology resource in this film, with the show's host, Michael Rodd, demonstrating the EMS VCS3 synthesizer and it's waveform output. Other EMS products include the incredible Synthi 100 modular console system, the EMS AKS, the Poly Synthi and the EMS Vocoder. Most of the location shots are filmed within the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop studios as they were in 1979. Malcolm Clarke demonstrates the Synthi 100, also known as the "Delaware", Michael Rodd demonstrates musique concrete by tape splicing and manipulation and Paddy Kingsland demonstrates tape recorder delay techniques (also known as "Frippertronics"). The Yamaha CS-80 analogue synthesizer is demonstrated by both Peter Howell and Roger Limb. The EMS Vocoder is also expertly put to use by Peter Howell on his classic "Greenwich Chorus" for the television series "The Body in Question". Dick Mills works on sound effects for Doctor Who using a VCS3 unit, and Elizabeth Parker uses bubble sounds to create music for an academic film on particle physics. Peter Zinovieff is featured using his computer music studio and DEC PDP8 computer to produce electronic variations on classic vintage scores. David Vorhaus is featured using his invention, the MANIAC (Multiphasic ANalog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)), and playing his other invention, the Kaleidophon -- which uses lengths of magnetic tape as velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers. The New Sound of Music is a fascinating insight into the birth of the world of recorded and electronic music and features some very classic British analogue synthesizers creating the electronic sounds in this film. The prime location for these demonstrations is the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where much creativity and invention took place during the period the workshop was in operation in the latter part of the twentieth century. Electronic music today is used everywhere, and many musicians gain inspiration from the past, as well as delving into the realms of sonic structures and theories made possible by the widespread use of computers to manipulate sounds for the creation of all kinds of musical forms."

The New Sound Of Music 1979 (part 2)

CLICK FOR MORE »

TAPE LEADERS - Book Review & Flipthrough | Early British Music Composers & EMS Synthesizers

video upload by synth4ever

"Tape Leaders book review & flipthrough. Tape Leaders is a richly illustrated A-Z compendium featuring over 100 composers active with tape and electronics in the analogue era.

Containing information never previously uncovered, Tape Leaders shines a fresh light on many sound experimenters unacknowledged in the history of British electronic music. It also covers EMS synthesizers such as the VSC3, Synthi and others as well as BBC Radiophonic studio.

Get your copy of Tape Leaders here: https://velocitypress.uk/product/tape...

----

Tape Leaders: A Compendium Of Early British Electronic Music Composers is an indispensable reference guide for anyone interested in electronic sound and its origins in the UK. The book compiles information on practically everyone active with experimental electronics and tape recording across the country to reveal the untold stories and hidden history of early British electronic music.

With an individual entry for each composer, it covers everyone from famous names like William Burroughs, Brian Eno and Joe Meek to the ultra-obscure such as Roy Cooper, Donald Henshilwood and Edgar Vetter.

There are sections for EMS and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and amateurs, groups and ensembles that experimented with electronics, including The Beatles, Hawkwind and White Noise.

Author Ian Helliwell draws on his experience and extensive research into electronic music. After six years and dozens of interviews, he has amassed information never before brought to light on this fascinating subject.

With a specially compiled 15 track CD of mainly unreleased early British tape and synthesizer works (exclusively available to the Velocity Press shop), this is an essential book for anyone interested in electronic music history during the 1950s and 60s.

This hardback book is 22.7cm x 17.7cm, and the 224 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 130gsm paper. You can grab a copy at

----------

TIMECODES

00:00 - Intro & Overview

00:50 - Electronic Music Composers A-Z
12:07 - Experimental Amateurs
13:20 - Electronic Music Groups
15:31 - EMS (Electronic Music Studios)
16:32 - BBC Radiophonic Workshop
17:25 - Tape Leaders CD Liner Notes
17:41 - Info, Credits & Index

19:02 - Conclusion & Final Thoughts"

RIP Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun

We lost another. Some sad news in via Atomic Shadow:

"I learned this morning of the passing of my best friend, Stephen Howell. Many of you know of his work as Hollow Sun. He was a well respected sound designer who had worked for Peter Gabriel and many others. He was a long time fixture at Akai Professional where he designed the UI for many of their top products as well as producing the sample content.

Stephen was my mentor and gave me the nudge to take my music in to a totally abstract direction. Without him there would have been no Atomic Shadow project. I plan to write a bit more about him when I can think more clearly. I am closing down yesterday's world of tomorrow, at least for now.

We only produced one piece of music together. I always tried to get him to do more of his own music, but he said that making music did not pay the bills. He was correct of course. I cut together a video to go with it at the time. Please enjoy it and share it with anyone that you know who may have known Stephen, or had their musical experience made more alive by using one of his instruments."


Mid Century Electronica from Atomic Shadow on Vimeo.

"A short piece featuring my vintage, tube HP sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators with a photographic homage to the early pioneers of electronica.... Daphne Oram in twin set, the impish Delia Derbyshire of the early BBC Radiophonic Workshop, several tweedy boffins in their music labs, Karlheinz Stockhausen and so many others. A different age when innovation and ingenuity triumphed over the many technical limitations of the age.

Abstract music soundtrack re-mixed and produced by Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun using traditional techniques in a digital age."

You can find an interview with Stephen Howell on SoundBytes here.

"I was always huge fan of early electronica and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Dr Who, Delia Derbyshire and all that as a six-year-old), Louis and Bebe Barron (who did the ‘electronic tonalities’ for the classic sci-fi movie ‘Forbidden Planet’) and loved the weird old gear they used to make/use, so Mario and I were able to design and create, using Kontakt, weird and wonderful things that flew in the face of, shall we say, more ‘conventional’ modern synths and sampler instruments..."

Indeed. Click here for all posts featuring Hollow Sun on MATRIXSYNTH. Each post is a tribute to his spirit. He will be sorely missed.

Update: Failed Muso has set up a condolence page here.

And on KVR here.

Update2:


Stephen Howell and the Subharchord from Ina Pillat on Vimeo.

"December 2011 at the Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum) in Berlin. Stephen Howell takes recordings of the instrument. Per Platou, founder and leader of www.pnek.org, has invited him to create a sound library and helps him with the recordings. Inventor Gerd Steinke in conversation with Stephen Howell.

Photography: Jenny Barth
Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer
Director: Ina Pillat
Production: Norwegian Arts Council // Per Platou, Ina Pillat"

Radiophonic Workshop - The Music of Doctor Who - Me, You and Doctor Who - BBC

Published on Oct 12, 2014 Doctor Who

"At the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Matthew Sweet learns how Doctor Who's distinctive background music was created."

Recreating the sound of the Yamaha EX-42 with six keyboards. Synths & live instruments.

A Petition to Publish Delia Derbyshire's music from the BBC Sound Archive

Sign the petition here.

"Most of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire's music exists in a single copy in the archives of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Many dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces of her beautiful work are mouldering unheard.

Delia's music broke new ground on several fronts: technological as she pushed what was possible with the equipment of her time, rhythmical as she experimented 11- and 13-note bars, and tonal as she freed herself from the 12-tone scale and voyaged into soundscapes and pure sound. Of Delia's work, only a tiny percentage is known to the public, whereas by far the majority of it is on tape in the Archive of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the custody of Mark Ayres.

We petition the BBC Trust to apply pressure to the BBC so that these recordings be swiftly published on traditional audio media (CD, DVD) so that the public, and in particular the British public who paid for it to be produced, be able to learn from and develop this woman's amazing musical visionary style.

The petition's closing date, the 5th of May 2014, is Delia's 77th birthday."

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Fourth Dimension

via Dinasaur Gardens where you will find more.

"I came across this album in a dilapidated Leeds (UK) record shop for just a couple euros and have held onto it for dear life — BBC Radiophonic Workshop on vinyl doesn’t sell cheap. The standout track for me is easily Vespucci, a funky saunter with a very sampleable cool synth melody. The abstract cover from this 1973 release looks quite a bit like a CD exploding, perhaps another ahead-of-their-time move from these old-timers."

via Denis

EMS SYNTHI 100

Ex BBC Radiophonic Workshop Yamaha QX1 & Maida Vale Guide?

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

QX1 via this auction
Maida Vale Guide via this.

"Ex-BBC Maida Vale Guide For Yamaha QX1 Digital Sequence Recorder including a letter dated 1986 addressed to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop from Yamaha."

CLICK FOR MORE »

1976: Roger Limb, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop with the EMS SYNTHI 100

#OTD 1976: Roger Limb, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, demonstrated how electronic music was made for TV and radio pic.twitter.com/pJyUI9PQTJ

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) November 7, 2017