Connecting - Go where only your ears can take you
By Simon James | July 24, 2008
I Just read a great article about the film War Games over at Wired Magazine. War Games came out at an exciting time where home computing was just starting to take hold and long before the word ‘hacker’ entered into the publics consciousness. Against a backdrop of 80’s USA/Russia nuclear nervousness it told the story of a young computer wizkid trying to impress his girlfriend by hacking into his school computer to change their grades. Things take a more serious turn when he hacks into a mysterious game called Thermonuclear War and inadvertently starts World War 3.
The Wired article includes some quotes from legendary phone phreak and computer hacker John Draper aka Captain Crunch (he got his name from the Captain Crunch cereal which came with a whistle that he used to hack into phone networks), who acted as a technical advisor on the film. I produced a radio feature with Ken Hollings for BBC Radio 3’s Between the Ears slot back in 2004 called Connecting, which invited listeners to ‘Go where only your ears can take you’. We interviewed Captain Crunch, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Joe Engressia and Mark Bernay who all talked openly about the early days of personal computers and phone and computer hacking.
Much of the music and sound design you can hear is created my manipulating original recordings of the phone networks of the 60’s and 70’s. The aim was to take the listener into this ‘blind’ world where communication was all about voices, sound and dialing tones.
My favorite quote comes from Joe Engressia, the blind phone phreaker who has spent his life using the phone networks to connect with people around the world and to escape a difficult childhood.
He says:
“All these beautiful systems, technically excellent and stuff, so many of them have long become obsolete and they are dust now, and this one I’m talking on which is the latest will be too. But you know, the people and the memories and the good words we say to each other somehow exist forever”.
You can listen to the feature here.
Topics: News, Sound | 2 Comments »
Take a walk around Pierre Henry’s House of Sound
By Simon James | July 23, 2008
If you are in Paris between August 4th and 15th you should definitely try and get tickets to visit Pierre Henry’s House of Sound. The pioneering composer is throwing open the doors to his home and allowing 13 lucky visitors (per day) the opportunity to explore his music and sound work. Find out more at USO, and Festival Paris Quartier d’Ete.
We featured some of Pierre Henry’s popular compositions in episode 2 of The Tone Generation which focussed on French electronic composers. Go here to have a listen.
Topics: Music, News, Sound | No Comments »
New Delia Derbyshire recordings discovered
By Simon James | July 18, 2008
Great news for fans of early electronic music. The BBC reports today on a discovery of music composed by the late Delia Derbyshire. Delia was the pioneering composer behind the mind blowing Dr Who theme and a catalogue of strange otherworldly music for BBC radio and TV dramas and documentaries.
The new recordings include a piece that sounds quite contemporary with phasing beats and electronic sounds. As Orbitals Phil Hartnol points out “That could be coming out next week on Warp Records,” . Its funny hearing Delia’s voice at the start of the recording dismissing it, “Forget about this,” she says, “it’s for interest only.” I wonder what Delia would make of the music her legacy has inspired. She is another artist who has crept in under the radar through TV and radio, infiltrating young minds who have since gone on to make their own electronic music. I should also mention her White Noise album which is well worth checking out. Love without Sound and Firebird are absolutely stunning tracks full of electronic wizardry (witchery) and tape manipulation. There is no doubt that Delia Derbyshire’s work has influenced me massively.
The BBC has sound files and the full story here. Thanks to Strange Attractor who first brought this to my attention.
Topics: Music, News, Sound | No Comments »
Ken Hollings blog/Welcome to Mars news
By Simon James | July 17, 2008
Ken Hollings now has his own blog. His second post has news on the Welcome to Mars book launch and accompanying CD of music that I wrote and produced for the radio series of the same name. Paper shortages in China and India have put the release date back till October but having read early drafts I can tell you it will be well worth the wait. The CD will also contain a live recording of the Interesting 2008 performance along side over an hours worth of electronic space music and manipulations.
Topics: Interesting, Music, News | 1 Comment »
Car lovers need sound
By Simon James | July 10, 2008
I’m not really interested in cars but this story in The Guardian newspaper caught my eye. It is about a new electric powered car called the Electric Lightning GT that can go from 0-60MPH in four seconds making very little noise. And there lies the problem. The makers of the Electric Lightning GT realised that a powerful car doesn’t seem half as powerful if it sounds like a milk float. This led to them adding a programmable sound simulator to provide the growl of a fossil fueled super charged engine. Yet more evidence of how sound plays a key role in enhancing our interactions and experiences.
Additionally I really like the idea of the sound generator being programmable. I wonder if you can add your own sounds; now that would be fun. Imagine driving down the road in a car that can sound like a supersonic jet, a beaten up old jalopie or even home made sounds. And when you get bored of that you can just switch off the sound simulator and live out your fantasy of being a milkman, albeit in a very expensive milk float.
Topics: News, Sound | No Comments »