A Sound British Adventure

[Loz]

Caught the end of this in the car at lunchtime:

Comedian Stewart Lee is passionate about electronic music and he take us on a remarkable musical journey. We discover how, after the Second World War, a small group of electronic pioneers began tinkering with their army surplus kit to create new sounds and music.

Tristram Cary started the first electronic music studio in Britain but, while France, Germany, Italy and the USA had lavishly funded research centres, British electronic music remained the preserve of boffins on a budget.

As the programme reveals, this make do and mend approach prevailed long after austerity Britain had given way to the swinging 60s, with Peter Zinovieff developing EMS synthesizers from a shed at the bottom of his garden in Putney. (Paul McCartney put on his wellies and took a look). Zinovieff is interviewed about his experiments in sound.

Unsurprisingly, the electronic community in Britain was a small, intimate group and joining Cary and Zinovieff was Daphne Oram, who devoted decades to developing a 'drawn sound' electronic composition system that never really quite worked.

Brian Hodgson tells us about 1960s experimental and electronic festivals, including The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave (1967) at which The Beatles' electronic piece Carnival Of Light had its only public airing. We shall also hear how the radiophonic workshop broke new musical ground with Dr. Who.

Experts in the history of electronic music, including author and musician Mark Ayers and Goldsmith College lecturer in computer studies Dr. Michael Griegson give the boffins' view and Portishead's Adrian Utley explains why the early forays in electronics are still relevant today.

The bit I heard was all about EMS, and the VC3, so of course, I thought about you cunts.

On iplayer for the next 7 days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lsyjg

[Hectic Cum Balthazar]

yeah missed it last night but looking forward to listening.

[don___quixote]

This sounds lovely : thank you.

[dan gulberry]

nice one Loz, looks good -- and one of the few i-player things I can stream here