if you are at all interested in doctor who, delia derbyshire, tape manipulation, experimental electronic music, musique concrete, or hell, just music in general, you will get a kick out of watching this doco which you can watch in its entirety on youtube. “alchemists of sound” tells the story of the bbc radiophonic workshop - creators of the ubiquitous dr who theme as well as countless other pieces of tv & radio incidental music.

the radiophonic workshop pioneered pre-synthesiser electronic music, using found sounds & musique concrete style recording married with highly experimental (and precise) tape editing. i’d love to find out more about some of the personalities involved with the workshop, john baker, delia derbyshire, walter/wendy carlos. this doco is a good introduction - and like me, you’ll mourn when it gets to the 70s when their idiosyncratic practices are ’superseded’ by daggy unreliable synthesisers.