A Radiophonic Weekend
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Sun 3 April 2011 // 17:00
(Sun 3rd / £10 limited weekend passes at £17 available from Bristol Ticket Shop)
Day two (Sunday) focuses on various developments that took place outside of the workshop, examining how new processes and inventions shaped and influenced its development into the 1970s. Along with those who forged their own idiosyncratic paths throughout the era, several contemporary artists bring a fresh approach through a reconfiguration of old technology.
Workshop founder and prime mover of early British electronic music, Daphne Oram will be the focus of guest speaker Mick Grierson, who curates her archive at Goldsmiths. He will discuss and present some of her work, as well as
highlighting the ‘Oramics’ machine she pioneered. Filmmaker, musician and artist Ian Helliwell will present a selection of his sound visualisation films. Since the early 1990s he has been experimenting with lo-tech equipment to make films which represent electronic music through super-8 and video. He has used simple graphics to generate soundtracks optically, and by building and modifying analogue circuitry, and adapting old televisions and rigging up photocells, he has developed a variety of techniques. The Megatherm machine, converts a specially made abstract super-8 film into electronic sound, and will be making a rare appearance in this programme. Helliwell will also present a rough cut of ‘Practical Electronica’, his forthcoming documentary on little known electronic music pioneer and inventor FC Judd. Being made on a no-budget basis, the film will highlight the work of this fascinating man during the 1950s and 60s, and uncover a lost chapter in British electronic music.
Alexander Thomas will bring us a taste of his spooked theremin tones, and Stephen Cornford will be performing live with his adapted reel to reel tape machines and spectral tape delays. Further film screenings will include Matthew Bate’s ‘What the Future Sounded Like’, focusing on the work of Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary, and the formation of the first British synthesiser company Electronic Music Studios (EMS), who went on to build the workshop’s infamous room filling monster synth, the 'Delaware'. An extremely rare 16mm screening of the Tristram Cary soundtracked film ‘Shaped for Living’ made for Expo 67, will be followed by a terrific US TV film on the work of Milton Babbitt and the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Centre with its equivalent monster RCA synthesizer.
STAGE TIMES (may be subject to change)
17:30 FILM: WHAT THE FUTURE SOUNDED LIKE (with intro)
18:00 MICK GRIERSON PRESENTS AND TALKS ABOUT THE WORK OF DAPHNE ORAM
19:00 FILM PREVIEW: PRACTICAL ELECTRONICA: THE WORK OF FC JUDD
20:15 ALEXANDER THOMAS (LIVE)
20:45 STEPHEN CORNFORD (LIVE)
21:30 IAN HELLIWELL SOUND VISUALISATION FILMS & MEGATHERM PERFORMANCE
22:30 FILMS: SHAPED FOR LIVING & MILTON BABBIT DOCUMENTARY
Day two (Sunday) focuses on various developments that took place outside of the workshop, examining how new processes and inventions shaped and influenced its development into the 1970s. Along with those who forged their own idiosyncratic paths throughout the era, several contemporary artists bring a fresh approach through a reconfiguration of old technology.
Workshop founder and prime mover of early British electronic music, Daphne Oram will be the focus of guest speaker Mick Grierson, who curates her archive at Goldsmiths. He will discuss and present some of her work, as well as
highlighting the ‘Oramics’ machine she pioneered. Filmmaker, musician and artist Ian Helliwell will present a selection of his sound visualisation films. Since the early 1990s he has been experimenting with lo-tech equipment to make films which represent electronic music through super-8 and video. He has used simple graphics to generate soundtracks optically, and by building and modifying analogue circuitry, and adapting old televisions and rigging up photocells, he has developed a variety of techniques. The Megatherm machine, converts a specially made abstract super-8 film into electronic sound, and will be making a rare appearance in this programme. Helliwell will also present a rough cut of ‘Practical Electronica’, his forthcoming documentary on little known electronic music pioneer and inventor FC Judd. Being made on a no-budget basis, the film will highlight the work of this fascinating man during the 1950s and 60s, and uncover a lost chapter in British electronic music.
Alexander Thomas will bring us a taste of his spooked theremin tones, and Stephen Cornford will be performing live with his adapted reel to reel tape machines and spectral tape delays. Further film screenings will include Matthew Bate’s ‘What the Future Sounded Like’, focusing on the work of Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary, and the formation of the first British synthesiser company Electronic Music Studios (EMS), who went on to build the workshop’s infamous room filling monster synth, the 'Delaware'. An extremely rare 16mm screening of the Tristram Cary soundtracked film ‘Shaped for Living’ made for Expo 67, will be followed by a terrific US TV film on the work of Milton Babbitt and the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Centre with its equivalent monster RCA synthesizer.
STAGE TIMES (may be subject to change)
17:30 FILM: WHAT THE FUTURE SOUNDED LIKE (with intro)
18:00 MICK GRIERSON PRESENTS AND TALKS ABOUT THE WORK OF DAPHNE ORAM
19:00 FILM PREVIEW: PRACTICAL ELECTRONICA: THE WORK OF FC JUDD
20:15 ALEXANDER THOMAS (LIVE)
20:45 STEPHEN CORNFORD (LIVE)
21:30 IAN HELLIWELL SOUND VISUALISATION FILMS & MEGATHERM PERFORMANCE
22:30 FILMS: SHAPED FOR LIVING & MILTON BABBIT DOCUMENTARY