Cool Icon: An Introduction to Delia Derbyshire.
The re-issuing of ‘An Electric Storm’ on vinyl has been partially
responsible for my re-visiting the life and work of Delia Derbyshire of late,
and that responsibility has been shared by the release of ‘Inventions For Radio’
as a special, and lovingly curated, 6-CD box set for Record Store Day back in
April. ‘Inventions For Radio’ was a play written by Barry Bermange and broadcast
in serial form on BBC Radio between 1964 and 1965. The title itself is a
reflection of the fact that it isn’t a play in the usual sense of the word,
being that each of the four ‘acts’ comprise the thoughts of members of the
general public, who were asked for their opinions and contemplations on each
of four themes; dreams, God, the after-life and getting old. The result is surprisingly
engaging, eerie, hypnotic even, and that is largely down to the sonic contribution
made by Delia Derbyshire.
The soundscapes that underly each of the four parts – Dreams,
Amor Dei, The After-Life and The Evenings Of Certain Lives – are quite
typical of Derbyshire’s output and I can think of no better introduction to her
music than the final 2 discs of the set, which comprise bonus and related material,
including much of the music used for the series, and serve as an excellent ‘best
of’ in their own right. It’s when taken out of the context of the program, and
left to stand alone, that it’s clear how pioneering she really was. Of course others
preceded her, those with with similarly innovative approaches to making music
and producing sound, not least Daphne Oram, who initiated the creation of the Radiophonic
Workshop in 1959, but I can listen to Delia Derbyshire’s music now and it still
sounds like the future and much of that is down to her painstaking methods,
which resulted in some of the most organic sounding electronic music ever
produced.
Her creativity wouldn’t allow her to remain constrained within the confines of the cramped, antiquated studios and strictures of the BBC for long, so she embarked on separate extra-curricular projects, one of which was White Noise, an experimental trio comprising Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson (also of the Radiophonic Workshop) and David Vorhaus. Their one and only album, ‘An Electric Storm’, is rightly considered one of the most significant and influential electronic albums ever recorded, ranking alongside the likes of Silver Apples, United States of America and Fifty Foot Hose. Listening to it now, you can hear the creative freedom in it, not least on ‘Here Come The Fleas’, ‘Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell’ and ‘A Game Of Loving’ (turn the volume down if your parents are within earshot kids).
I could go on about how unique she was as an artist and what an influence she had on all forms of electronic music, but all that has been better explained elsewhere. Below are a few links to films, documentary’s and music that are a worthy introduction to Delia Derbyshire should you want to learn more. There is a scene in the documentary ‘The Delian Mode’ that tells of her use of a particular metal lampshade to produce strange and eerie sound effects, and that lampshade was called a ‘Coolicon’, and it’s a cliché to say it, but that’s exactly what Delia Derbyshire has become.
Links:
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes – BBC Arena Biopic starring Caroline Catz, with soundtrack and cameo appearances by Cosey Fanni Tutti.
The Delian Mode – 2009 documentary by Kara Blake.
Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti – Unique and enlightening biography by Cosey Fanni Tutti.