From Dr Who to The Dark Side of the Moon to modern day dance music, the pioneering members of the Electronic Music Studios radically changed the sound-scape of the 20th Century. What the Future Sounded Like tells this fascinating story of British electronic music.
Post-war Britain rebuilt itself on a wave of scientific and industrial breakthroughs that culminated in the cultural revolution of the 1960’s. It was a period of sweeping change and experimentation where art and culture participated in and reflected the wider social changes.
In this atmosphere was born the Electronic Music Studios (EMS), a radical group of avant-garde electronic musicians who utilized technology and experimentation to compose a futuristic electronic sound-scape for the New Britain.
What The Future Sounded Like | Trailer
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=Q-IkmSxxUK0
Comprising of pioneering electronic musicians Tristram Cary (famed for his work on the Dr Who series) and Peter Zinovieff, EMS’s studio was one of the most advanced computer-music facilities in the world. EMS’s great legacy is the VCS3, Britain’s first synthesizer and rival of the American Moog. The VCS3 was a uniquely British invention, which changed the sounds of some of the most popular artists of this period including Brian Eno, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd.
Almost thirty years on the VCS3 is still used by modern electronic artists like Aphex Twin and Chicken Lips. What The Future Sounded Like colours in a lost chapter in music history, uncovering a group of composers and innovators who harnessed technology and new ideas to re-imagine the boundaries of music and sound.
Deliah Derbyshire | Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=jetzY-W78gg
The BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create ‘new kinds of sounds’. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake’s Seven and Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.
Introduction by and discussion with Ton, Steine, Scherben‘s Wolfgang Seidel, adept in history of Electronic Music, friend and musical partner of german Electronic Music pioneer Conrad Schnitzler.
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What The Future Sounded Like & The Alchemists Of Sound SCREENING
presented by Berliner Musikfilmmarathon
Monday, 16 April 2012 | 18:00 CET
Martin-Gropius-Bau | Niederkirchnerstr. 7 | 10963 Berlin/Kreuzberg
musik-film-marathon.de
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