by Author sam dook

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Synthesize Me! A new project by the Carousel House Band

The Carousel House band is an integrated band consisting of learning disabled musicians and music facilitators. The band is about to embark on a new project called 'Synthesize Me!' creating new music using digital technology and developing and delivering two workshops in a local SEN school

Based around celebrating the work of British female electronic music pioneers Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire. The band and students from a local SEN school will be exploring the relationship between visual and musical forms and methods of manipulating recorded sound.

As part of the preparation for the workshops the band will be researching and exploring how techniques pioneered by these musicians has informed modern music technology. We will be creating new sounds and textures using audio sampling and sound manipulation. We will be using current music technology and engaging in research and development with a local music software programmer to explore the possibilities of software currently being developed. 

Delia Derbyshire was a pioneering musician and composer who was born in Coventry in 1937. She worked in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, in London, and is best known for her early electronic recording of the Doctor Who theme tune in 1963.

Daphne Oram was a British composer and electronic musician. She was one of the first British composers to produce electronic sound, she co-founder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and was a central figure in the evolution of electronic music. Besides being a musical innovator, she was the first woman to direct an electronic music studio, the first woman to set up a personal electronic music studio and the first woman to design and construct an electronic musical instrument.

BBC ‘Ideas’ have made a great short documentary about both musicians, you can find it here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OrVMUCCXVyU

The inspiration for the project title comes from another exceptional electronic musician, the amazing Space Lady. She knows a thing or two about sound manipulation! you can hear her song 'Synthesize Me' in the link above

This project is partly funded by the Ambache charitable trust, raising the profile of music by women.

Please visit the links below to find out more about Carousel, a learning disability arts organisation based in Brighton, UK.

Website:

www.carousel.org.uk

Twitter:

www.twitter.com/carouselartuk

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/carouselartuk

Instagram:

www.instagram.com/carouselartuk