Reworking An Electronic Innovator

Daphne Oram (31 December 1925 – 5 January 2003) was a British composer and electronic musician. She was the creator of the "Oramics" technique for creating electronic sounds. Oram was a true pioneer in electronic music.

Reworking Daphne Oram is an album by People Like Us created with recordings from Oram's archives.

INFORMATION

"In January 2005, Sonic Arts Network, the leading UK body for electronic music and sound art, was asked by Daphne’s descendants to care for her collected papers, recordings and other items. It was with the benefit of experimental electronic music practice in mind that Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studio (EMS) collaborated with the Sonic Arts Network (SAN) to bring this collection into the academic community where it could be properly studied and developed. To this end, a grant was awarded to Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to catalogue the collection, digitise the audio tapes and initiate related research.

"In June 2008 People Like Us were invited into the archives of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, to rework them into new compositions, to be presented as part of a day-long symposium at London's South Bank Centre. Here are the results." -- People Like Us

BIOGRAPHY

Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been an influential figure in the field of audio visual collage, through her innovative sampling, appropriating and cutting up of found footage and archives. Using collage as her main form of expression, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that communicate a humorous, dark and often surreal view on life. These collages mix, manipulate and rework original sources from both the experimental and popular worlds of music, film, television and radio. People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use. In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive. People Like Us have previously shown work at Tate Modern, The Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Pompidou Centre, Maxxi in Rome and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. The ongoing sound art radio show 'DO or DIY' on WFMU has had over a million "listen again" downloads. since 2003. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb.

Vicki recently completed the creation of a new live a/v performance called "Consequences (One Thing Leads To Another)", which premiered at transmediale in January 2013. She is now working on a film for live improvisers called "Gesture Piece".