Sunday, January 17, 2016

Vor Haus Rules


Again, I am so sorry my updates are rare and far and few between sometimes. Real life happens, I have had too much personal struggle happening lately to even mention. I still continue to create every single day, and pretty heavily regardless. Such is life. Today, i've got a killer, killer release from the 1300 series of K P M. You are going to love it.

Dave Vorhaus was an american born bassist and composer who struck gold in the UK musically, performing in orchestras before settling abroad and composing in White Noise with BBC Radiophonic Workshop partners Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, formerly of Unit Delta Plus, a collective set up in 1966 by both of them and Peter Zinovieff to create music and also promote it's use in television, film and advertising. 

While he may not be known as well in America, his unique use of the EMS Synthi VCS3 on 'An Electric Storm', released in 1968 on Island Records was quite pioneering and daring, and was pretty much the writing on the wall of what was to come in electronic music. Personally, i put him up there with the likes of Mort Garson, Andy Clark, and Keith Mansfield simply for his originality. A lot of the time, producers in library and production music may play a little too close to the chest in terms of strict melody and even stricter song structure.


Vorhaus was quite flexible in both his experiments as well as his ability to blend rhythmic and melodic components of songwriting and give you the best of both worlds, weird and soulful. Dave must have kept himself busy in a fashion similar to the likes of Muslimgauze, another essential musician who worked nonstop and diligently to perfect his craft. Perhaps you have seen this video with Dave Vorhaus, but if not, here's a look inside his studio, and some basics on his philosophy behind composition as well.




As you can see, not only was Vorhaus a great composer and musician, he was also a designer of synthesizers and innovated how synthesizers were made. He created a variable-step synthesizer called 'The Maniac' that was capable of up to 64 steps, not only that, separate sequences as well. He credits the possibility of this synthesizer due to the new availability of CMOS chips. Apparently, he still uses it to this day, how cool is that? If you'd like some more technical information about some of the stuff he made, hop on over to SOS for this article with excerpts and pics from the man himself:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb02/articles/davidvorhaus.asp

Today, I have 'Sound Conjurer', an interstellar look at so many different tastes and styles that its hard to even give an explanation or describe this music. To call it 'ethereal' doesnt do it justice...theres a real hardline balance here between experimentalism and strong melodies that I feel a lot of people will enjoy and i consider it a personal fav, check this track. Unfortunately I cant find a video for 'Scurry Pt. 2', but I believe that track from this album may make use of 'The Maniac', most likely others too!


Again, my apologies for the lack of updates. I have been working hard at my own music, trying to get through some rough times. here's the album, enjoy. I'll try and post again within a few weeks.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/v2n7sd9eu5zvj95/dave_vorhaus_%26_dave_bradnum_-_sound_conjurer_%28kpm_1303%29.rar