Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra explores the mixed-up, show-off world of the 19 eighties with Paul Morley and Anne Dudley, founder members of pioneering pop conceptualists Art of Noise.
The debut 1983 Art of Noise EP Into Battle with the Art of Noise with its definitive electronic and sampling elements, is stripped bare as it’s transformed into a defiantly non-electronic orchestral suite. We take crossover to 1980s heights with ZTT composer Andrew Poppy’s 32 Frames for Orchestra.
How did we get to the eighties? What happened when we were the eighties? How do we remember the eighties? Music guru Paul Morley asks the questions as we move from pop to minimalism to unpick, unravel and reframe the music of the decade in a brand-new documentary soundtrack composed by Anne Dudley.
Classical meets synth-pop as we search through a variety of possible 19 eighties and the progress of rhythm in a post-sampler, post-drum machine, post-minimalist and post-remix world.
PRE-CONCERT TALK:
1980s: The Electronic Music Decade
Saturday 30 November, 6.15pm-7pm
The Front Room, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall
Free event
Electronic music artist, producer and pioneer Martyn Ware (founder member of The Human League, Heaven 17 and British Electric Foundation) will be presenting a lively and engaging discussion about the use and development of electronic synthesisers and the nature and meaning of electronic music throughout the decade of the 80s.
Martyn will demonstrate the first two monophonic synthesisers he owned, which helped to create his seminal early Human League albums Reproduction and Travelogue. The broad ranging and informal discussion will be enhanced by Martyn’s guest, one of the earliest members of the original Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radiophonic Workshop, Peter Howell, who is a leading expert in modular synthesisers made by Roland, Arp and EMS from that period.
There will be plenty of time for Q&A's towards the end of the session, and maybe even a chance for members of the audience to come and experiment with some sounds of the decade!
