Doctor Who Theme by Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer, Cover with the Korg Monologue/Minilogue

video upload by Mattelica

"Live take of the Doctor Who Theme song with a Korg Monologue on Key Trigger/Hold mode on bass and the Korg Minilogue + internal delay/feedback on melody to a Yamaha MG10xu mixer with internal early reflection fx to a Canon 6D + 17-40mm lens"

Hardcore techno's alternative history - Case: Dance of the Anthropoids - Electric Byway

video upload by Electric Byway

"Was the first released prototype of hardcore techno actually released in 1968 in Finland? In this video we take a look at the history of hardcore techno and speedcore, and a particular 1960's experiment of high tempo rhythmic electronic music and its creator.

EDIT: A little correction: 'We Have Arrived' from the 'Reflections Of 2017' 12" was on white label in 1990, but officially came out in 1991 on Planet Core Productions and Industrial Strength. Thanks to Spastmatiker for pointing it out.

INTRO MUSIC BY:
https://soundcloud.com/dc_fields

MUSIC BY:
Leo Anibald - Ritmicida
Delia Derbyshire - Dance from Noah
Erkki Kurenniemi - Antropoidien tanssi
Erkki Kurenniemi - Sähkösoittimen ääniä #1
Amalgam 5 - Amalgam V
Low Entropy - Futuristic"

Erkki Kurenniemi - Antropoidien tanssi (Love Records, 1968)

video upload by pottue

"Vinyl rip from: VA - Perspectives '68 - Music In Finland (wrong cover picture in the video)
Love Records (4) ‎– LRLP 4
Country: Finland
Released: November 1968
Discogs info: http://www.discogs.com/Various-Perspe... [cover & record lables below]

All rights belong to the artist.

Erkki Juhani Kurenniemi (10 July 1941, Hämeenlinna, Finland – 1 May 2017, Helsinki) was a Finnish designer, philosopher and artist, best known for his electronic music compositions and the electronic instruments he has designed. He is considered to have been one of the leading early pioneers of electronic music in Finland. Kurenniemi was also a science populariser, a futurologist, a pioneer of media culture, and an experimental film-maker."

CLICK FOR MORE »

PIN Electronics Portabella Synthi MK III 2022 (EMS Synthi Clone)

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Comes with 32x pins in total, authentic EMS colored inlets (installed by me) from EMS Cornwall & the U.S. power cord. Also Including EMS, VCS3, Delia Derbyshire & Portabella patch sheets."

Note the listing price is $7,800 + $150 shipping, while Pin Electronics has them for 6499 € exc. VAT & shipping.

Posting for the pics and a reminder they are out there. See the links for more info.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Doctor Who Theme Music - Played on Vintage Synths

video upload by Luke Million

"The theme from Doctor Who has always been a favourite of mine. I've recreated it using a mix of the 60s and 80s theme music created by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire and thrown my own synth flavours in. 🎹👨‍⚕️🎹

Gear Used;
Moog Multimoog
Roland SH2
Arp Odyssey Mk 1
Korg MS20"

EMS Founder Peter Zinovieff Has Passed Away

Update: Image of Peter Zinovieff (previously in via Brian Kehew).

"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair

Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.

They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."


Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios video upload by JeffreyPlaide


Peter Zinovieff: Synth Pioneer video upload by Sound On Sound magazine Jul 21, 2016


Peter Zinovieff talks about modern musical interfaces video upload by Expressive E Jan 6, 2016


Peter Zinovieff feature uploaded by Erica Synths on Nov 23, 2020. This was the latest video to feature Peter Zinovieff that I am aware of.


Peter Zinovieff interview 2015 video upload by 香港電子音樂社 Hong Kong Electronic Music Society Jun 30, 2015


Dr Peter Zinovieff intro & performance excerpt - Deliaphonic 2017 video upload by Deliaphonic Aug 29, 2018

And a few perspectives from others:

Bright Sparks Behind The Scenes - The Brits video by GForce Software published Feb 16, 2021

Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E1 Peter Zinovieff

video by The Galaxy Electric published Jan 27, 2021

Peter Zinovieff Electronic Calendar

video by Mark Jenkins published Dec 9, 2019 - Electronic Calendar available through this post.

You can find a history of posts mentioning Peter Zinovieff here.

via The Guardian

"Peter Zinovieff, a hugely influential figure in British music whose early synthesisers helped to change the sound of pop, has died aged 88. He had suffered a fall at home earlier this month.

With its marketing slogan 'think of a sound – now make it', his company Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was one of the first to bring synthesisers out of studios and to the public. With products such as the portable VCS3 and Synthi A, EMS customers – including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, the Who, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd – were often taught to use the instruments by Zinovieff.

In 1967 he collaborated with Paul McCartney on Carnival of Light, a performance of a 14-minute avant garde composition created between Beatles sessions for Penny Lane that has never been released.

He was also a respected composer of his own work, including early experiments with AI composition and sampling – he claimed to have invented the latter technique." You can read the full post here.

via Wikipedia:

"Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer, whose EMS company made the VCS3 synthesizer in the late 1960s. The synthesizer was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-oriented artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.

Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]

Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce.[9] In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney. (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood).[10][11] EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue-digital hybrid.[12] It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and a piano keyboard.[13] Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show. In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse, at which the Carnival of Light was also played; they split up later in 1967.[11] Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.[14]

In 1968, part of the studio was recreated at Connaught Hall, for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine.[15] At the IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis.[16]

In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary.[17] At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd. was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP, Buchla, and Moog.[18] In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Robert Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron.[19]

Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back".[20] Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of the synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade".[21]

Zinovieff wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus,[22] and also the words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970).[23] The section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) by Hans Werner Henze included a tape by Zinovieff."

Update:

Peter Zinovieff: A Tribute by CatSynth TV

video upload by CatSynth TV

"We look back at the life and work of Peter Zinovieff, who passed away last week at the age of 88. His work at Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was a major influence on musicians of the 1970s and beyond. At EMS, he co-created the well-known and coveted VCS3 and Synthi series. But he was also a composer in his own right, working on pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and returning to active composition in the 2010s with several collaborations with artists in other media and exploring massive sound spatialization.

Additional background music provided via the Arturia Synthi V as a tribute."

You can find additional posts featuring Peter Zinovieff here.

SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS from Monoduo Films on Vimeo.

VIRTUAL THEATRICAL - ONE WEEK ONLY!

SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. Theremins, synthesizers and feedback machines abound in this glorious ode to the women who helped shape, not just electronic music but the contemporary soundscape as we know it.

Avant-garde composer Laurie Anderson narration accompanies fascinating archival footage to trace the history of the technological experimentation of sound, the deconstruction of its parts and the manipulation into something altogether other. While traversing a range of musical approaches and personalities, from academia to outsider art to television commercials, we meet Clara Rockmore, Bebe Barron, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Spiegel, Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire and Eliane Radigue, fascinating and enigmatic musical geniuses and their peculiar way of hearing the world.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/sisterswithtransistors/534043397

https://sisterswithtransistors.com

Martin Hannett Echo and custom Space/ Dalek Voice Effect - Joy Division Producer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Martin Hannett legendary Manchester producer custom modified echo and Space/ Dr Who Dalek voice simulator/ effector with 240v power supply - Mic in and line in and Mic out and line out on 6.35mm jacks

As you may know Hannett was fascinated with echo using echo and delay to great effect on Joy Division records , he also loved watching science fiction films Doctor Who , Daleks and space age sounds and exchanged tapes with Delia Derbyshire from the Radiophonic Workshop who created those sounds. Science fiction sounds gave Hannett his ideas for studio effects

This is a really rare and fully working Hannett customised machine

from the equipment cache of the man who produced Joy Division, early New Order, Stone Roses , Happy Mondays, Buzzcocks, Magazine, John Cooper Clarke, U2 and more

will come with provenance note

will ship anywhere in the world will work worldwide- step up transformer would be needed for 110 v countries"

CLICK FOR MORE »

Check out an EMS VCS4 at VCS4 Day Event on March 19

Looks like two EMS VCS3s in a custom keyboard controller case. There was a smaller VCS4 and XILS made a software emulation that looked just like this one. You can find both in the archives here.

Details on the event via Eventbrite:

"VCS4 day is a one day event (10–5pm) that pays tribute to the unique early music synthesiser, the EMS VCS4, which has recently been acquired for the Department of Music at Goldsmiths from the musician Simon Desorgher, with the support of the Goldsmiths Alumni and Friends Fund.

VCS4 day is a free event, but due to a limited capacity you must register through Eventbrite to attend.

The VCS4 was produced by the world-renowned Electronic Music Studios Ltd (EMS) company in London in the late 1960s, run by pioneering composer Dr Peter Zinovieff. It was one of a number of early EMS synthesisers used by pioneers of electronic music in Britain, and was created initially for the composer Harrison Birtwhistle for use in his piece Chronometer (1971–72). The instrument, which is the only one in existence in the world, combines two VCS3 synthesisers to create a custom and highly versatile performance instrument. VCS3 synthesisers have been used by such luminaries as Delia Derbyshire, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Robert Fripp. For many years the VCS4 had been thought lost, until the advent of the Hugh Davies Collection arriving at Goldsmiths in 2019, when Desorgher approached the music department with a proposal for the VCS4 to be maintained and made available to students and researchers at Goldsmiths Electronic Music studios.

Shortly after Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios opened in 1968 (one of the first electronic music studios at a university in the UK), the studio obtained two other EMS VCS3 synthesisers. It is fitting therefore that the VCS4 is now housed in Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios, affording opportunities for it to be used by undergraduate and postgraduate students in both their compositions and performances.

VCS4 day represents an opportunity to gain detailed insight into this extraordinary instrument, through a series of talks from its inventors, protagonists and leading experts on the history of analog synthesisers and their cultural impact. A programme of performances on the VCS4 will take place throughout the day."

Synthfest UK 2019

Published on Oct 11, 2019 Jyoti Mishra

"At the Octagon Centre, Sheffield, 5/10/19"

Featured: Cosmotronic, Soundgas, Unniversity of Derby, TA Programming, Dreadbox, Waldorf, Transistor Sounds Labs, Valley & VCV Rack, Dove Audio, Delia Derbyshire Day, Mike Gorman, Spitfire Audio, Presonus, Soundtronics, Dubreq, and Analogue Solutions Colossus.

See the Synthfest UK label below for more coverage of this year's event.

Electronic Sound Issue 56 Magazine & CD Bundle Featuring EMS

via Electronic Sound

"We have a superb issue for you this month. And that’s not only because we have an exclusive interview with Kraftwerk main man Ralf Hütter, although since Hütter rarely talks to the press that is clearly something a bit special.

Our cover feature details the history of EMS, the legendary UK synthesiser company founded by Peter Zinovieff, Tristram Cary and David Cockerell in 1969. What started out as a vehicle to fund Zinovieff’s studio became a decade-long adventure in synthesis with a very British sense of innovation about it. EMS machines like the VCS 3 and the Synthi AKS were responsible for some of the best known electronic music of the 1970s – from the Radiophonic Workshop to Brian Eno to Pink Floyd.

We also have a weighty report on the recent Bluedot Festival, featuring Kraftwerk, New Order, Jon Hopkins, John Grant and more. Our interview with Ralf Hütter took place backstage after the Kraftwerk set, with Hütter radiating urbane charm and wry humour as he chatted about music and science and sampling and cycling. “We are not a museum, so let’s play what we do,” he declares. “My art is music.”

Other interviews this issue include Haiku Salut, Eric Random, Jah Wobble & Bill Laswell, Paranoid London, Rolo McGinty from The Woodentops. Plus, of course, we have our packed front section, our ace regular columnists, and our usual exotic feast of new album reviews. Hit the link to order your copy straight away!



Limited Edition CD Album: ‘The Sounds of EMS’

This month’s audio accompaniment is ‘The Sounds Of EMS’, a fascinating 45-minute CD of music made either by the people responsible for EMS, or by the machines they built. You can almost smell the dust burning as the old circuits start warming up! The CD has two pieces by Peter Zinovieff and another from Tristram Cary, the latter with a spoken explanation of what he wanted to achieve with the piece. There are also tracks by David Vorhaus (who founded the cult electronic group White Noise with Delia Derbyshire), Mike Hankinson (another early adopter of the VCS 3), Benge from Wrangler and Jack Dangers from Meat Beat Manifesto.


01. PETER ZINOVIEFF – ‘A LOLLIPOP FOR PAPA’
02. TRISTRAM CARY – ‘ 3, 4, 5 – A STUDY IN LIMITED RESOURCES’
03. BENGE – ‘1969 EMS VCS3’
04. DAVID VORHAUS – ‘THING FOR TWO VCS3S’
05. JACK DANGERS @ TAPE LAB – ‘SYNTHI 100-PIECE 1’
06. MIKE HANKINSON – ‘JS BACH’S FUGUE AND TOCCATA IN D MINOR’
07. PETER ZINOVIEFF – ‘JANUARY TENSIONS’ (EXCERPT)
08. TRISTRAM CARY – ‘3, 4 , 5 – A STUDY IN LIMITED RESOURCES’ (TALK)"

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music #7 w/ Delia Derbyshire Collaborator David Vorhaus

David Vorhaus Analogue Electronic Music 1979 Published on Sep 13, 2009 JeffreyPlaide

Update: Festival info further below. Thought I would start with a couple of videos featuring David Vorhaus.

"In this historical video excerpt, David Vorhaus talks about two of his analogue inventions - the MANIAC analogue sequencer, and the Kaleidophon from 1979.

The MANIAC (Multiphasic Analog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)) was an analogue sequencer having variable step lengths, and the ability to split sequences into several smaller groupings giving considerable sonic potentiality. Addition and subtraction of events was possible, as well as the possibility to chromatically correct the output during performance. David could program his MANIAC sequencer to play a background rhythm or combination of musical events, to then improvise over the top with another instrument or synthesizer.

The Kaleidophon was a double-bass-like instrument using four velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers instead of strings. The instrument is played entirely using the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the sound via a number of controllers and a joystick.

David speaks about the processes of making electronic music, and the developments that such possibilities can provide for the imaginative electronic musician. This excerpt is taken from the BBC 1979 documentary entitled "The New Sound of Music" hosted by Michael Rodd."

WHITE NOISE Electric Storm in Hell [not quite Full Album]

Published on Mar 9, 2013 musick2138

"The Seventh Wave presents

White Noise - a Fifty Years Celebration of An Electric Storm & Other Sonic Adventures

Voyd - live set / White Noise - live set / White Noise - talk and q&a

Friday 14 June 2019 Doors 6.30 pm.

Curfew 10.00 pm.

The Blue Orange Theatre, 118 Great Hampton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6AD.

White Noise - An Electric Storm - Review

When White Noise's debut album, An Electric Storm, landed on Island Records in 1969, it must have sounded like nothing else. Packaged in a striking black and white sleeve that pictured a spark of lightning streaking across a black sky, this was an album that - quite rightly as it turned out - resembled as much a scientific experiment as any conventional musical document.

White Noise came into being when David Vorhaus, an American electronics student with a passion for experimental sound and classical music attended a lecture by Delia Derbyshire, a sound scientist at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop whose claim to fame was writing the original Doctor Who theme tune. With the help of fellow Radiophonic Workshop composer Brian Hodgeson, Vorhaus and Derbyshire hunkered down at Kaleidophon Studios in Camden to pen an album that reconciled pop music with the experimental avant-garde. The result is a set of eerie, delightful songs that, for all their surface simplicity, shimmer with vestigial synthesiser swells, strange echoes, disembodied voices, and distant music-box trills.

Outside of a few equally adventurous '60s releases - the debut album from US psychedelic pioneers The United States Of America, for instance - this is pretty much uncharted territory, particularly for a major label release. On ''My Game Of Loving'', a dozen multi-tracked voices built to a panting orgasm, while the closing ''Black Mass An Electric Storm In Hell'' ushers the record to a freeform close in a clatter of freeform drums, cavernous echo and chilling, animalistic screams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, An Electric Storm would struggle to find an audience on its release, and in the following years, great leaps in synthesiser technology somewhat diminished White Noise's experimental achievements. One thing that would remain timeless, however, were the songs themselves. An Electric Storm would later become a key inspiration on bands like Add (N) To X and Broadcast, synthesiser explorers who picked through these primitive, vestigial sound experiments, took careful notes, and eventually, set out to craft their own futuristic pop lullabies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pq9x/

The other two dates of the festival feature:

Banco de Gaia (Toby Marks) - he will once again be accompanied by Patrick Dunn on visuals (Patrick produces visual content for Tangerine Dream!!!).

The Black Dog is a British electronic music group, founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner. The group are considered pioneers who, along with acts like Autechre, Aphex Twin, LFO et al came to define the UK techno movement in the early 1990's.

For further information email theseventhwave@btinternet.com

Tickets available at https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/"

Doctor Who Theme played on synthesizers by Markus Fuller

Published on Feb 20, 2019 markusfuller

"Doctor Who theme written by Ron Grainer and created by Delia Derbyshire. I have added a few parts and made it a little longer.
several synths and 48 tracks of recordings were needed to put this together."

Roland System 8 and Yamaha MODX keyboards featured.

Patricia Wolf Sound Pack for the Novation Peak v1.2

via Patricia Wolf:

"This is a demonstration of the sound design work I did for the Novation Peak. I created 50 patches demonstrating some of the new features that the v1.2 firmware update has to offer. My sound pack is available for free with the update through Novation's Components App. Select the Novation tab on that app to access them as well as GForce Software's free patches.

The patches are performed with a mixture of Octatrack sequencing (using sequences from songs I have written) and live performance with a MIDI controller. I was inspired by artists like Delia Derbyshire and wanted to record little vignettes and sonatas using the Peak without other sound sources.

I made this recording so that friends can hear the sounds I made and so that other Peak users can get a closer glimpse into how I envision sound design. Please get in touch if you have any questions about my process or anything else related to this project and I will respond as best I can.

The Novation Peak was recorded directly into a Steinberg UR44 interface. No external effects. Subtle mastering from Tokyo Dawn Labs software to balance recordings of different patches.

And here is a little bit of information about me:

Patricia Wolf is an electronic musician, sound designer, and gallery curator based in Portland, Oregon. After years of working in the synth pop duo Soft Metals, Wolf became interested in exploring non-linear songwriting and new forms of synthesis. Alongside working with Novation, Wolf co-founded the gallery Variform which focuses on sound design and modern composition. Patricia Wolf is a recipient of the Precipice Fund, a grant funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, to explore synthesis in the contemporary art world."

You can find info on the Novation Peak v1.2 update here. Also see previous posts here on MATRIXSYNTH for additional demos.

A Delia Darbyshire Moment on the Make Noise Morphagene

Published on Nov 23, 2018 mylarmelodies

"Happy Delia Darbyshire day (23rd Nov! https://deliaderbyshireday.com/) - Here's a bonus clip I've never uploaded here before, from when I made the Morphagene Demo - inspired by how Delia Darbyshire used piano to tune her vocals for 'Blue Veils and Golden Sands', which she turned into a reedy instrument sound (using 1960's tape studio magic, not really what I'm doing here...)."

Delia Derbyshire/Blue Veils and Golden Sand

Published on Apr 17, 2009 iiishtar

Blue Veils & Golden Sands

Published on Jun 17, 2012 Dave Kahn

"Martyn Wade's radio play about the composer and electronic music pioneer Delia Debyshire."

Serge Tcherepnin joins Random*Source as Chief Innovation Officer

Serge Tcherepnin has joined eurorack manufacturer Random*Source as Chief Innovation Officer. The official announcement follows:

"Serge (himself!) is back

Synth legend Serge Tcherepnin joins Random*Source as Chief Innovation Officer

Frankfurt, 13 November 2018. Serge Tcherepnin, the inventor of the legendary Serge Modular synthesizer system and, like Don Buchla, one of the founders of what became famous as the 'Westcoast approach', has joined the Random*Source team as Chief Innovation Officer with a focus on developing the 5th generation of the Serge modular synthesizer system.

Serge Tcherepnin is an American composer, musician and electronic mastermind of Russian and Chinese descent who grew up in France and in Chicago. His first teachers in music include his father, Alexander Tcherepnin, Nadia Boulanger, Quincy Jones. He fast joined the musical avant-garde at Harvard, studying with Pierre Boulez and meeting Henry Flynt and other FLUXUS musicians, and some of the ONCE FESTIVAL group of composers, among which Gordon Mumma whose electronics were an early influence. Returning to Europe, he worked at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan and the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop where he became friends with Delia Derbyshire, while giving concerts with Irmin Schmidt, Jon Hassel, Katerina Krimsky, in Germany. Now back in the USA, he became known for designing unusual electronic devices for musicians like his brother, Ivan Tcherepnin, Maryanne Amacher, Mort Subotnick, Charlemagne Palestine, Kevin Braheny and Malcom Cecil. In '70 he joined the music faculty at Cal-Arts with the express goal of researching the uses of electronics for music. It's there he developed the idea and design of the first “Serge” modules and started his company, Serge Modular Music Systems, in Hollywood, in 1975.

Joining the R*S team will allow Serge to lead the development of a number of new and previously unreleased Serge ideas and designs. As Serge states: “I’m excited to work even more closely with Ralf and the Random*Source team as we share the tech savviness, obsession with quality and constant urge to push limits further. The main goal is to expand the range of modules and sub-modules that lend themselves to being 'patch-programmed" in unusual and unforeseen ways, thus to add to and expand musicians' studio synthesizers way past standard synth configurations. I’d like to see the Serge system to grow wide and large, modules all talking to each other, whether they originated in my Hollywood lair in '75, or in the '80s on Haight Street, or now, coming from Random*Source.'

About Random*Source
Random*Source is a project founded by Ralf Hoffmann near Frankfurt, Germany, with a mission to carry on and further develop and extend the work of synth pioneers Serge Tcherepnin and Jürgen Haible. Since 2015 Random*Source has been working in close cooperation with Serge on a new generation of the Serge system. Using high-end parts and components, SMD technology and modern production methods allowed to improve audio performance significantly and develop more compact, slimmer modules and systems. Together with Serge, Random*Source also faithfully translated the Serge range from its original (“4U”) format to the eurorack format – using identical circuits and sticking strictly to the unique user interface of the Serge system, the “Serge grid”. Latest offspring of that collaboration is the New Ring modulator which Serge designed for Random*Source in 2017."

Digital Tambura + Delia's Fave Lampshade!

Published on Aug 11, 2018 100 Things I Do

"Thought I would share an experiment this week.

What would happen if I mixed the ideas behind Terry Riley's 'In C' with the effect of early tape experiments of Steve Reich. Instead of a beat I started with 3 Drones from a Radel Digital Tambura. The lampshade is of the kind Delia Derbyshire once used (check out Blue Veils and Golden Sands). From here I have created 3 basic Patterns with the sampler : Descending, Pulse and Dual pattern Pulse. While obviously not groundbreaking in any new way it does bring a new flavour of hypnotic drone that I have not used before. Some of the emergent patterns work quite well I think."

Noir Et Blanc Vie: Top 3 synths I REGRET not buying

Published on Jul 10, 2018 Noir Et Blanc Vie

"I think we all know this feeling, when we wanted to buy a synth and the price was right, but we passed it up. Now all we do is look back and think, if only we had got it right then. Now we live with synth regret, realizing that even though we could have the cost is just too much. Tell me in the comments the synths you passed up on and what you want, but may never own!"

What are you regrets?

A few I regret not picking up which were actually for sale were Delia Derbyshire's VCS3 Putney and a Synton Syrinx both being sold by Spectrum's Sonic Boom, the Jomox Sunsyn, LL Electronic Rozzbox, and an army green Waldorf Microwave 1. I regret them because they were actually attainable considering what they were. On the not so affordable list there were a few ARP 2500s, Emu Modulars, EMS SYNTHI 100, Buchla gear, EMS SYNTHIs, and Waldorf Waves I've spotted for sale over the years. And The Schmidt, let's not forget The Schmidt. I'm sure there were others...

I do have an OB-6 (desktop), and an XTk on Noir Et Blanc Vie's list and love them both. Never picked up an Easel though.

The Delian Mode - Delia Derbyshire Documentary

Published on May 5, 2015 mprobs

"The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, 2009) is a a short experimental documentary revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her groundbreaking sound treatment of the Doctor Who theme music. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s unique approach to audio creation and manipulation, this film illuminates such soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades.

http://thedelianmode.com"

And a couple of videos from the Delia Derbyshire YouTube channel:

Delia at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 18 1 1968

Published on Sep 23, 2015 Delia Derbyshire

"Delia Derbyshire starts the computer playing Zinovieff's "Partita for Unattended Computer" at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 18th Jan 1968"

Max Träger's "diagrams" video of Delia Derbyshire's papers

Published on Aug 31, 2015 Delia Derbyshire

"This is a first demo version of a video Max was doing in July 2011 to display some scans of Delia's diagrams and diagrammatic scores for her electronic music.The accompanying music is "The Wizard's Laboratory" from the album Electrosonic.

Questa è la prima versione dimostrativa di un video che Max stava facendo a luglio 2011 per presentare alcuni scan dei diagrammi e degli spartiti diagramattici preparati da Delia mentre componeva la sua musica elettronica. La musica che l'accompagna è "The Wizard's Laboratory" dall'album 'Electrosonic'."

Check out previous posts featuring Delia Derbyshire in the archives here.

Delia Derbyshire Honored with Posthumous PhD

via theguardian

"The under-appreciated electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme is to be honoured posthumously with a doctorate from her hometown university as the programme gears up for the debut of its first female lead.

Largely ignored in life and barred from working in studios because she was a woman, Delia Derbyshire, will be awarded an honorary PhD from Coventry University on Monday."

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This one was sent in via MATRIXSYNTH Reader Gareth.

An interesting side note is that I once almost picked up Delia Derbyshire's EMS VCS3/Putney. Peter Kember, aka Sonic Boom of Spectrum and Spacemen 3 fame, was selling it along with a Synton Syrinx years ago, before I started this format of MATRIXSYNTH. I seem to remember he wanted around $7k or so for it at the time, but I might wrong. I didn't have the funds so I passed. Also, a little unknown bit of synth history is that EMS sent the BBC an EMS SYNTHI 100 during the time Delia Derbyshire was there, and she actually did not take to it. It is my understanding that she preferred to work with tape. Curious what she might have thought of a Buchla, as the focus of Buchla was to compliment electronic music composition on tape.

Panda Bear Synth Art

A friend of mine, Douglas, recommended Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper. I picked it up on vinyl, opened it up, and saw this image on the inner gatefold sleeve. How cool is that? You can clearly spot a Moog Voyager in the background and a Jomox XBase 999 in the foreground. There's also a some other gear, a synth cat, and a grim reaper with cables. One of the cables the reaper is holding wraps around Panda Bear and morphs into a scythe. Death by cable / death by synth / death by audio.

What is also particularly cool, and something you rarely see, are the synths listed in the liner credits. They are listed as follows:

Panda Bear: Jomox Xbase 999, Yamaha TX81Z, Moog Voyager, Elektron DPS-1, vocals, piano, effects & percussion.
Sonic Boom: EMS Synth AKS Synthesizer, Fenix II Modular, Moog Voyager, vocoder & effects.

Sonic Boom is the man behind Spectrum.  He has been featured here a few times on MATRIXSYNTH, including this post for his action figure. Side note: One of my biggest regrets years ago, before I started the blog format of MATRIXSYNTH, was missing out on Sonic Boom's Synton Syrinx and EMS VCS3 / Putney, which was previously owned by the one and only Delia Derbyshire. He listed them for sale on one of the synth lists. I forget which. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford them but I will never forget them.  It was one of those rare moments when you think, "Wow, that is something I will never see again.  I wish I were rich... "  Don't we all.  :)