Electrosonic

KPM1104 album cover

Back of KPM1104 album cover

Electrosonic is an album of “Library samples of electronic music for radio, TV and film industry.”

All tracks are credited to Harper/Russe/St George, where

• Harper = Don Harper
• Li De La Russe = Delia Derbyshire
• Nikki St George = Brian Hodgson

In the GLOSPOT1104 sleeve notes, John Cavanagh gives a loving and entertaining portrait of Delia and the circumstances surrounding the album's creation.

Brian Hodgson says:

Don was an Australian mood music composer. [...] I felt uncomfortable working with Don. At our first meeting he was pleasant enough, but I just felt he was using Delia and I to do something he couldn't do himself. [...] Harper got up my nose a lot, so I really kept out of it as much as I could. [...] There were some of my things which I just said to Don "have this" and gave him tracks, but I would say my contribution to it was much less than either Delia or Don's.

According to the Performing Right Society's database, KPM received 50% of the royalties, Harper 25% and Delia and Brian 12.5% each.

Track list

Delia's plan for the album targets the pieces for use in three areas:

• Documentary suite: Set of utility cues for use in documentaries made for instructional and educational purposes rather then entertainment (productions concerning science, research, mechanisation, pollution etc.)
• Drama suite
• Light suite

Most tracks seem to consist of a Delian backing with Harper making discordant noises over them but The Pattern Emerges, Liquid Energy (b) and Celestial Cantabile sound like pure Delia.

• A1 Quest (1:44)

• A2 Quest - fast (1:09)

• A3 Computermatic (1:15)

• A4 Frontier of Knowledge (2:06)

• A5 The Pattern Emerges (2:56)

• A6 Freeze Frame (1:42)

• A7 Plodding Power (1:52)

• A8 Busy Microbes (1:40)

• A9 Liquid Energy (a) (1:56)

• A10 Liquid Energy (b) (rhythm only) (0:58)

• B1 No Man's Land (1:52)

• B2 Depression (1:28)

• B3 Nightwalker (2:00)

• B4 Electrostings (0:21)

• B5 Electrobuild (0:22)

• B6 Celestial Cantabile (3:30)

• B7 Effervescence (2:04)

• B8 The Wizard's Laboratory (2:06)

• B9 Shock Chords (0:33)

Papers

• DD150440: Delia's papers relating to Electrosonic are enclosed in a folded sheet with "Received the sum of £200 for 39 Powis Sq (flat 8)" written on it in marker pen
• DD150638: Typewritten overall plan: DOCUMENTARY SUITE / DRAMA SUITE / LIGHT SUITE
• DD150510: "K.P.M. 7½ mono!" with Delia's list of corrections to be made to some of the tracks

Tapes

• DD074: "Good sinister background" with makeups and Shock Chords.
• DD088: "Makeup for Electrosonic".

Availability

• Released on vinyl by KPM Music Library as KPM1104 in 1972.
• Released in limited editions of 500 copies on 180gm audiophile green/pink/blue vinyl and CD by Glo-spot as GLOSPOT1104 in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
• It used to be available from Boa Melody Bar but they only have the T-shirt now.
• You can order the vinyl and hear some samples for free at Boomkat.