Daphne Oram

Unheralded for far too long, electronic music visionary Daphe Oram is beginning to receive some well-deserved attention. We've all been beneficiaries of her pioneering work founding the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC ― early Dr. Who episodes' sound effects and scores have her fingerprints all over them. When bureaucratic politics prompted her to resign, she built her own electronic music studio ― the first ever created by a woman. Pursuing her vision, she created the Oramics graphic sound machine, which allowed her to "draw" sounds on film, this before Xenakis' UPIC and Metasynth left the drawing board ― again, it was the first electronic instrument created by a woman. Besides the musical value of hearing pieces like "Light Music" and her score, "Hamlet ― Youth Theatre," we get peeks into her creative process. Components of "Pulse Persephone" can be heard prior to their mix. And we can listen as she explains the sonic elements of a headache remedy commercial she's working on. The Oram Tapes is of historic value, certainly, but it's the glimpses inside the workings of Daphne Oram's intensely creative mind and hearing her unnervingly prescient music that make this two-CD set a treasure trove for anyone interested in electronic music.