I have always been fascinated by what sound can do. That is why I have always loved radio so much. A couple of years ago I wrote the following feature for Blueprint magazine - here extended to its original length, with the advantage of active links.
‘The
ear is totally neglected. Everything is centred on
the eye’.
So said Daniel Barenboim in his BBC Reith
Lecture series. He was referring to our ever more
visually laden world, contending that via cable
television, the internet, mobile phones, weekend
supplements, pop videos, commercials, movies,
supermarkets and an expanding array of pictorial
magazines, we are being assaulted by the image.
And with this heightened state of visual ‘awareness’
our ears have gone into retreat, missing much
of what goes on in the wider sonic world.
Personally,
I disagreed with his statement. But when,
recently, I made a presentation to a group of cross-disciplinary
designers on the importance of sound
design within the creative community, my view
changed dramatically. Barenboim’s
words returned to haunt me.
Less than half the designers present shared my view that sound design deserves its place at the high table of creativity. They could not relate, say, typography enhancing the experience of looking at the editorial page to sound design doing exactly the same for an environment or an exhibition space. To their ears it was just a variation of music and little else. Disheartened, I felt compelled to write this piece in support of a world that I find to be both truly inspiring and a design process.
My interest in the subject started in the early Fifties. I happened to hear a record played on a children’s request programme. It was called Sparky’s Magic Piano. A child struggles to play a piano. Suddenly he hears an eerie voice emanating from deep within the instrument. This strangely compelling harmonic voice – created by a Sonovox, a
device placed on the throat to pick up voice vibration
– immediately made an impression on me
as an alternative world of sound.
A
little later, I saw the film Forbidden Planet, and
quickly became captivated by the added sounds that
accompanied the stunning Technicolor images...
This was the first all-electronic score for a
feature film and was the work of pioneers Louis
and Bebe Barron...
Ironically, they had problems
being accepted as creative talents. The powerful
US Musicians’ Union would neither allow
them membership nor to have their names put
forward for an Oscar nomination for the score of
Forbidden Planet. Consequently, they had great difficulty
working in the film industry. Deservedly, in
1985, Bebe became the first Secretary of The Society
of Electro-Acoustic Music.
Radio, a more sympathetic
vehicle for the ear, started to broadcast the science
fiction series Journey into Space in 1954. Huddled around the fire on a cold
winters night I would be transported to the surface of Mars with hero
‘Jet’ Morgan due to the brilliant work of the sound engineers who
created wonderful extra-terrestrial effects and atmospheres that helped
evaporate the grim post war backdrop of my youth. A little later saw the
creation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop...
Two notable female members of the electronic fraternity are Delia Derbyshire, above and Daphne Oram below, at the BBC Radiophonic workshop in the mid 50s.
In those early days equipment was
unsophisticated with cumbersome reel to reel tape decks,
but still
sensational things were achieved and the Workshop’s output including Quatermass and
the Pit...
Dr Who, Blake’s 7 and The Hitch Hiker’s
Guide to The Galaxy and continued
until the end of the 80’s when the
department was axed under John Birt’s regime.
In the late
50s the emergence of Robert Moog’s modular synthesizer...
Robert Moog inventor of the first subtractive synthesizer, unveiled in 1964, and was a major turning point for those in the field of electronically scored music and sound design.
began to transform the
sound landscape. Wendy Carlos and the Japanese composer Isao Tomita lead
the way in exploiting the potential of the Moog Synthesizer. Carlos’s
later work Switched on Bach...
was used to great effect in Stanley Kubrick’s A
Clockwork Orange. And it was Kubrick again who included the work
Atmospheres by György Ligeti in the climatic and memorable Star Gate scene in 2001...
Stanley Kubrick’s futuristic ‘Star Gate’ scene from ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’,1968 used sonic atmospheres to heighten the visual experience and became the ultimate trip for those under the influence of LSD in the 60s.
At the time and even now many people think the piece was created
electronically, but it was entirely written for a conventional orchestra.
Ligeti’s desire to abandon melody, harmony and rhythm in favour of a
sound mass with sliding and merging sonic textures is something that the
electronic world can now achieve with ease.
The
influence of 2001's ambient music sound design is evident
in many films that were to
follow. Kubrick established the possibilities of what creative sound
editing could offer in contributing to a scene's power by treating it as a sonic
performance and consequently expanded the art form of filmmaking.
The late 60’s also saw an increasing use of electronic elements within the psychedelic
bands with their lengthy instrumental solos and “trippy”
electronic effects; distortion,
reverb, and reversed, delayed and
phased sounds. The album that
brought psychedelic rock into pop culture was The Beatles 's Revolver . I didn’t rate The Beatles until I heard
their 1966 single Rain, the last seconds of the track featured reverse tape
voices - the first time that this had been done. I’ve been a fan of theirs ever
since.
Paul Tanner’s, invention the Electro -Theremin...
Russian émigré, Leon Theremin with the invention that carries his name. The Theremin was patented in 1929 and later immortalised by Brian Wilson on the Beach Boys track, ‘Good Vibrations’. Theremin was later kidnapped by the KGB under mysterious circumstances and sent to a Russian labour camp.
was used on the
celebrated Beach Boys track Good Vibrations and in between all of this
popular culture there were the avant guard electronic artists; John Cage,
Stockhausen and Steve Reich. In 1980 Laurie Anderson released her eccentric
single Oh Superman making a clear link with that 50’s Sparky track - Anderson's
voice was distorted through a vocoder, making it androgynous and eerie.
Today there is a great merging of musicians, producers and technical programmers and
editors that make up the 21st century sound designer. It would be
remiss of me not to mention Brian Eno in all of this. Whilst pursuing his early
career with Roxy Music he was privately giving birth to what was later
to become ‘Ambient’ music - for that I can even overlook the sequin
leotards. The notion of Muzak had always fascinated him. The idea of an ambient
backdrop for different settings spawned his ambient series. The first Music
for Airports (1978) is still, nearly 30 years on, constantly used to create
a calming effect to many documentaries. For me his Ambient 4 album, On Land
(1984) is a magnificent textural soundscape evoking a desolate landscape
demonstrating the sheer power and beauty of this discipline. If you have
never heard it do, preferably in a darkened room with a great sound
system. Eno was also responsible for an early sonic identity – the Windows 95
start up sound probably heard by more people that any other sound on the
planet.
Another champion of creative sound is David Lynch's Eraserhead...
not only
established him as an original maverick director but also demonstrated his
understanding of sound as a narrative force within a film and this became
increasingly evident in his later works. It was largely due to Lynch’s
collaboration with the late Alan Splet who worked on four of his early films as sound designer.
Four
notables who have blurred the boundaries
are Cliff Martinez (Solaris, 2002), Mark
Isham (Crash, 2004), David Holmes & Steve Hilton
(Code 46, 2003) and Joakim Sundstrom (I Could
Read The Sky, 1999). The last is a tour de force
in the use of collaged sound elements to evoke
a complex narrative that depicts a man’s life and
memories, and is every bit as stunning as the Seamus
McGarvey images that it accompanies.
Another
musician-cum-sound designer who is
a great advocate of embodying broader values in the
world of sound design is Martyn Ware, founding
member of late Seventies’ electro pioneers
the Human League and Heaven 17. Before
all that, he was a computer programmer
and has always had a keen enthusiasm
for experimenting with sound. Martyn remembers
as the Human League were clambering for
chart success they were also busy with a parallel
life recording electronic albums under the name
BEF (British Electric Foundation) that were completely
‘off the wall’. Many people surrounding
the band thought they were mad. But
Ware has a deep awareness and passion for
sound both in an historic and philosophical sense.
When he had an opportunity to purchase some
highly expensive and sophisticated three dimensional sound
equipment at a knock-down price
from the ailing National Centre for Popular Music
in Sheffield, he jumped at it. With
his role as record producer becoming less in
demand – he had produced Tina Turner, Marc Almond
and Terence Trent D’Arby among others – he
formed the Illustrious Company with Erasure’s Vince
Clarke and they immersed themselves in the
studio with their new kit. Contact was made with
fine artists, among them Turner Prize nominated
Tim Head and Cathy de Monchaux, to collaborate
on sound and image installation pieces to
push the possibilities of sound design in an artistic
environment, or, as Martyn prefers to call it,
‘sonic architecture’. Ware
speaks with great knowledge and enthusiasm
on the subject and he has become a travelling
evangelist, regularly staging events under
the banner ‘The Future of Sound’. At these events,
sound experimenters gave practical demonstrations
of their theories. The evenings are extremely
inspiring and anyone with even a passing
interest should go to one.
Ware
and Clarke have developed an impressive
body of work with organisations as diverse
as the Royal Ballet and Sony, to BBC TV and
the Science Museum. Last year saw their most
ambitious project to date, Sound Oasis in Mexico.
Over 10 days, 100,000 people experienced the
world’s largest 3D outdoor soundfield featuring 12
sound artists, each contributing a two-hour site and
time-specific piece that looped every 24 hours. It
is fitting, then, that Ware and Clarke were commissioned
by the British Council to install a series
of sound pieces in the British Pavilion at the 2007 Architectural Biennale in Venice. The
introduction of synthesizers, samplers, multi-tracking
and an array of additional computer technology
has, in essence, created a new world of
sound, with infinite possibilities. There are now exceptional
creative talents taking us on a
journey into that world and we are all the richer
for it
POST SCRIPT: In November 2012 Brian Eno was made a Royal Designer for Industry. Hooray!
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