Practical Electronica + Director Q&A
Dir. Ian Helliwell, English, UK, 2011
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Thu 31 May 2012 // 19:30
/ Cinema
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"A contemporary of pioneering radiophonic composers and inventors such as Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram and Ron Geesin, in the 1950s and 60s, FC (Fred) Judd was one the unsung heroes of British electronic music."
Quote from THE WIRE SALON website, where the film was programmed (http://cafeoto.co.uk/wire-salon-practical-electronica-fc-judd-ian-helliwell.shtm)
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A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT BRITISH ELECTRONIC MUSIC PIONEER FRED JUDD (1914 - 1992)
"Practical Electronica" is an hour long experimental documentary about the largely overlooked work of electronic music pioneer Fred Judd.
Frederick Charles Judd was born in 1914 in East London, and he developed an early and abiding passion for radio. With the outbreak of WW2 he served in the RAF working with highly secret radar equipment, and he later used his engineering experience to develop his musical interests through electronics.
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+ Q&A with the director: Ian Helliwell
We are very excited that Ian Helliwell will be present for this screening to introduce his film and discuss his work with the audience!
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EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY
The film revolves around archive footage and stills, animation and experimental video techniques, and attempts to capture the essence of the period in which Fred was most active with electronic music.
1950s – 1970s
This extensive research and film project focusses on Fred Judd’s electronic music and the period from the mid-1950s to the early 70s. It puts him in context amongst the experimental tape recording of his day, in which he played a high profile role in its dissemination to amateur tape clubs and the public at large.
RARE FOOTAGE
Fascinating sound and film discoveries have been made which reveal Fred's forays into electronic music, including background and recordings of his self-built synthesizer from 1963, and a whole standard 8mm reel of Chromasonics footage circa 1962. Chromasonics was his system for the visualisation of electronic sound, and the film, with a soundtrack of Tom Dissevelt music, is a hitherto lost piece of abstract film history.
DOCUMENTARY SOUNDTRACK
For the documentary soundtrack, Ian has created reel to reel tape loops and used his own self-built tone generators, the Hellitrons, to punctuate and underscore the narration.
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TRAILER
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+ 4 SHORTS FROM IAN HELLIWELL
The screening of "Practical Electronica" will be accompanied tonight by 4 excellent shorts from the director Ian Helliwell:
At the Glitterball (3'20, 2011)
Practical Exhibition (6'35, 2012)
Disc Break (3'25, 1998)
FC Judd: Mad Motors (3', 1974)
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ABOUT IAN HELLIWELL
Ian Helliwell is a self-taught audio-visual artist based in Brighton.
His work encompasses short experimental films, shown at festivals worldwide, and the composition of electronic music with instruments he designs and builds himself. On occasions he performs live with the Hellisizer 2000 and exhibits his creations in galleries.
This is what THE WIRE says about him:
"Self-taught (he says the idea of higher education had seemed “absolutely inconceivable” to him), he has an auto-didact’s critical perspective upon the curricular repetitions of more institutional histories. For Helliwell the work of Ian Loveday, a 13 year old amateur music-maker, can be as relevant as that made by renowned members of the Radiophonic Workshop. His face lights up as he speaks excitedly of discovering a 1968 letter to Amateur Tape Recording magazine in which Loveday describes an early piece of intuitive electronics: “He’d modified this circuit and made these strange oscillations and a sequencer from a doorbell circuit…” - THE WIRE
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Tickets on the night: £5 / £3.50 (conc)
Or advance tickets: £4.50 and £3 (conc) here http://www.wegottickets.com/event/165343