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 »
Heineken Green Synergy 2008 Sounds
By noisymatchbox | July 9, 2008
We shipped the Heineken Green Synergy sound design to 23 countries in the Caribbean last week. Check out our media player to hear some of the sounds.
The photo features Junior Reid and is from last years Heineken Green Synergy event in Jamaica. We provided sound consultancy, design and production to support the event.
Topics: Clients, Heineken, Music, Sound | No Comments »
BBC Future Now sonic brand
By Simon James | July 9, 2008
We just delivered a package of sonic branding to Audemos for their client BBC Future Now. It sparkles, it shimmers and different textures flow in and out of focus all combining to suggest a sense of movement towards resolution and harmony, which is exactly what the brief called for. Of course it would be much better to just listen for yourselves but because it is an internal BBC department it will probably never get any public airing. That might change though so if we get permission we’ll add it to our showreel.
Topics: Clients, News, Sound | No Comments »