Electronica Part 2
I recently visited the Modern Art Gallery in Edinburgh. This was long overdue as I hadn’t attended for a couple of years. I regularly visit the venues in the centre of town, but the Modern is about a half hour walk from the National Galleries so I could never go during my lunch hour. Now I have the time to plan a proper visit, I went in early and arrived for opening time. There are two buildings a short walk apart, known as Modern One and Modern Two.
I will blog later about the many paintings I took in, as I want to concentrate on one specific work. Galleries always surprise me. I never know what is going to grab my attention and this visit didn’t disappoint. I’ve always been interested in electronic music, both as a listener and as someone who has several synthesizer modules connected together via a mixer, allowing me to dabble with my own material. I’ve read on the subject and have grown up with Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Jean Michele Jarre, Vangelis and others and have collected compilation albums featuring other artists. I recall I have mentioned my interest in Electronica in Part 29 of this series of blog posts.
From my own collection, books to check out include Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds which charts the development of Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Tangerine Dream: A critical discography by Paul Stump and two books on Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk Publikation by David Buckley (spelling is deliberate there) and Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany by Uwe Schutte. If eighties synth pop is more your thing, then Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics by Dylan Jones is well worth reading.
I can recommend the film The Rise of the Synths (2019) which looks at the development of what is known as Synthwave and also a fascinating documentary entitled Sisters with Transistors from 2020 which features the role women have played in the development and acceptance of electronic music. Both of these I have viewed on Sky Arts and they maybe available on other platforms.
Back to the Modern One. I was delighted to see a painting by Victoria Morton, entitled Daphne Oram (2014). In fact, I was stunned. Immediately this painting became one of my favourites to hang on my wall. Daphne Oram (1925-2003) was a pioneer of electronic music. She co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1957. From there she created sound effects and electronic pieces for radio and television programs. It was from this workshop that Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) created the Dr Who soundtrack. Oram invented what is known as Oramics, a means to synthesize sound by drawing shapes onto film.
The painting is based on a black and white photograph of Oram, and shows her at work, creating sounds that at the time no one had heard. To my mind the style of painting and use of colour provides a great image of Oram. It’s not photo realistic, but the detail conveys how she looked at that time with what I would describe as an impressionist background conjuring up the idea of the abstract sounds she was creating. Note how our eyes are drawn to her hand using yellow, suggesting the moment of creativity as she works to compose new sounds.
I’m fortunate to be within reasonable travelling distance of the gallery so I’m looking forward to hopefully viewing again in person. For now, I have a couple of good photos to remind me of what is now a favourite painting of mine.