DELIA DERBYSHIRE- "The Wizards Laboratory" (1972)

The Women of ELECTRONIC MUSIC! From the 30's to the 70's!

Before synthesizers, electronic music was honed the hard way in universities, by splicing tape loops, distorting sounds, endless dubbing, and blind instinct. Here are the timeless women of future music who created our present...

Since the 1930's, CLARA ROCKMORE was the master of the notoriously difficult Theremin, and later championed by synthesizer-creator Bob Moog; LOUIS & BEBE BARRON created the first all-electronic score for the film "FORBIDDEN PLANET" (1957), using oscillated sounds and tape loops; //STUDIO d'ASSAI (Paris): Danish ELSE MARIE PADE studied under musique concrete founder Pierre Schaeffer, becoming a noted composer; ELAINE RADIGUE used the Buchla and Arp synthesizers in her work, heavily influenced by Buddhist meditation, and records now with laptop improv group The Lappetites; MICHELE BOKANOWSKI has composed for film, televison, and theatre; //BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP (London): ...was created and directed by DAPHNE ORAM, inventor and sonic pioneer; she was followed by DELIA DERBYSHIRE, who brought Ron Grainer's "DR. WHO" theme to brilliant, eerie life with her studio wizardry; MADDALENA FAGANDINI co-created the proto-Techno single "Time Beat/ Waltz In Space" (1962) with young producer George Martin under the alias 'Ray Cathode'; GLYNIS JONES produced some of the Workshop's classic albums like "Out Of This World" (1976); ELIZABETH PARKER scored many BBC shows including "BLAKE'S 7", and was the person to see the Workshop out in its 1998 finale; //Fluxus performance artist YOKO ONO expanded John Lennon's mind and range with electronic music, musique concrete, and 'happening' experiments; //COLUMBIA-PRINCETON ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTER (New York): A premiere focal point for international composers since the 50's, including composer and Associate Director PRIL SMILEY; ALICE SHIELDS combined her operatic voice and poetry with the revolutionary synthesizers of the late 60's and early 70's; teacher DARIA SEMEGEN wrote traditional classical music as well as electronic; WENDY CARLOS had massive mainstream success with the all-synth "Switched On Bach", before writing groundbreaking film scores for "A CLOCKWORK ORANGE," "THE SHINING" and 'TRON"; nearby at Bell Labs, LAURIE SPIEGEL spearheaded computer graphics and software design as well as new music; maverick ANNETTE PEACOCK went from Free Jazz piano to the first synthesizers, threading her early 70's raps and rock with freeform electronics; //Argentinian BEATRIZ FERREYRA, who also studied with Schaeffer, is an esteemed composer and teacher; //SAN FRANCISCO TAPE MUSIC CENTER: The crucial West Coast electronic center, including Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and PAULINE OLIVEROS in 1962; it moved across the Bay to become the... //CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC (Mills College, Oakland, CA): Oliveros was the first Director, perfecting her signal processing system for live performance; student and now Co-Director MAGGI PAYNE trailblazed video imagery and record engineering along with her music; alum CYNTHIA WEBSTER played in the early synth band Triode, founded electro mag SYNAPSE, and now runs Cyndustries designing software for electronic music, such as the Zeroscillator.

Their innovations led to Progressiv Rock, Krautrock, New Wave, Coldwave, Darkwave, Electro Funk, Industrial, Techno, and Electroclash. Their fringe future music is now the soundtrack of today.

DELIA DERBYSHIRE: This song is from a 1972 LP called "Electrosonic", collecting music library pieces Delia scored for use in TV shows. It was recently issued on CD, as was "Oramics" by Daphne Oram:
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=89395
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=35793

See also:
ALICE SHIELDS -"STUDY FOR VOICE AND TAPE" (1968)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4vTRZPLyKX0

MALARIA! -"Your Turn To Run" (1982)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUTS9r8DGPw

http://www.cyndustries.com/woman.cfm

http://www.newyorkwomencomposers.org/index.php4?v=n

http://www.aliceshields.com/

http://www.imtheone.net/annettepeacock/intro.html

http://whitefiles.org/rwg/index.htm


(All rights reserved by the copyright owners. Fan-made nonprofit video solely to promote the artists.)
tym stevens

Category:

Music

Tags:

• AliceShields
• DeliaDerbyshire
• Malaria!
• DrWho
• Devo
• Kreaftwerk
• LeTigre
• Ladytron
• Electronica

[RedVynil]

You forgot Laurie Anderson. Thanks for posting the picture of Wendy Carlos! I've never seen one!! I've only seen pictures of Walter.

[funknroll]

@RedVynil  Check out the sequel video, "MALARIA! -"Your Turn To Run" (1982)": Laurie Anderson is in there with many more 80's disciples of these electronic pioneers.

[imaratsfan]

Was it Deliah who did Dr Who?

[funknroll]

Yes; Ron Grainer wrote the melody, but Delia created the music in the sound lab with techniques that still amaze everyone.

[synthesizerman]

Zero Oscillators at the end of the video are a new invention.

[funknroll]

It's in chronologicla order. The latter women started in the early 70's and continue expanding today. I put Cythia Webster with her current invention, the Zeroscilator, to connect them all to the Electronica of now.

[Ntone606]

She needs to come back from the afterlife and sign to Warp Records!

[withinthecube]

Thank you for posting this, I now have hours of research to do !!!

[audreyjeandreamer]

I am just blown away.

[SkeeterNYC]

Very cool. My faves are Yoko and Annette Peacock. What about Anne Clark? I guess she came later.

[Gmancrap]

Luke Vibert - Space Race 

[emanueljoab]

Better than David Guetta.

[RedVynil]

@funknroll Cool & groovy!!  :-)

[borgduck]

@therealKINDLE Not the one with the spooky little girl, I'll bet!

[therealKINDLE]

@dhollseed I Don't know about that. I Do know how ever that the Album was inspired almost entirely by Delia Derbyshire's work though. There's an interview on Alchemists of Sound with the man behind the Sound (Geoff Barrow) & he admits that he seems to gravitate towards Delia's Material more than any other. She's Inspired all my work thats for sure! But I'm just a novice. Nothing Like Portishead & BEAK>! Geoff Barrow's Studio contains a EMS VC3 & he uses it in their Chase the Tear Track. AMAZING!