Fuck Yeah! Delia Derbyshire

prostheticknowledge:

Running - Delia Derbyshire (via UBUWEB)

Dreams (1964)

1. Running
2. Falling
3. Land
4. Sea
5. Colour
6. Outro

“Dreams” was made in collaboration with Barry Bermange (who originally recorded the narrations). Bermange put together The Dreams (1964), a collage of people describing their dreams, set to a background of electronic sound. Dreams is a collection of spliced/reassembled interviews with people describing their dreams, particularly recurring elements. The program of sounds and voices attempts to represent, in five movements, some sensations of dreaming: running away, falling, landscape, underwater, and colour.

Delia Ann Derbyshire (5 May 1937 - 3 July 2001) was an English musician and composer of electronic music and musique concrète. She is best known for her electronic realisation of Ron Grainer’s theme music to the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

thepleasuresofelectricity:

Nightwalker - Harper/Derbyshire/Hodgson

All of the tracks on Electrosonic are credited to Harper/Russe [Derbyshire]/St. George [Hodgson], so it’s difficult to know who composed which pieces, or which might be collaborations.

What to make of this ongoing contemporary interest in vintage library music, BBC Radiophonic Workshop sonic doodles, and all manner of hauntological audio detritus? Discovering obscure music is exciting, but what can beat the thrill of discovering music that wasn’t even meant for popular consumption? Is virtual crate digging on music blogs a suitable replacement for the real thing? Has virtual crate digging become the real thing? How do you know you have genuine vintage music, and not some contemporary artists using a pseudonym and a fictional back story? Is it more emotionally satisfying piecing together your own narrative from historical fragments than accepting one handed to you? How is it possible to grow a cult from a single photo of a woman wearing a hair band, working at a tape machine?

“Moogies Bloogies”, Delia Derbyshire with Anthony Newley

(Thanks to delia-derbyshire.org).

An unreleased perv-pop classic in the 1966 novelty vein, recorded with Anthony Newley. The future Mr Joan Collins was after an electronic backing track and called in Delia (he wasn’t alone - Paul McCartney considered using Delia’s electronic backing for “Yesterday” before using a string quartet). Delia said of this track: “I’d written this beautiful little innocent tune, all sensitive love and innocence, and he made it into a dirty old raincoat song. But he was really chuffed!” Sadly Newley decamped to Hollywood before he could progress beyond this demo recording. Delia was initially disappointed with the recording, but as the years passed she became exceptionally fond of it, and insisted it was featured on this site.