These Hopeful Machines (RNZ doco)

[NudieDaniel]

A documentary about electronic music the title comes from the BT album of the same name BT's music sadly dosen't feature
Written and presented by James Gardner
Produced by Tim Dodd and James Gardner
Series Overview

James Gardner traces a personal path through the evolving world of electronic music – and meets some of the people who made it happen. In six content-rich episodes he looks at over 100 years of recording techniques, electronic instruments and gizmos, and their use in popular music, art music and their position in Western culture.

We have exclusive interviews with BBC Radiophonic Workshop personnel Brian Hodgson and Mark Ayres, EMS pioneers Peter Zinovieff and David Cockerell, American musicians Bernie Krause and Morton Subotnick, jingle, logo and sound-effect maestra Suzanne Ciani, computer music pioneers Barry Vercoe and John Chowning (he also of FM synthesis fame), Fairlight CMI developer Peter Vogel, German keyboardist and composer Irmin Schmidt, and synthesiser programmer Phill Macdonald.

We also hear from several other pioneers along the way including Bebe Barron, Tristram Cary, Robert Moog and Miller Puckette.

Many audio examples have been very kindly given to us for use in these programmes and some are being heard for the first time publicly.


Tim Dodd and James Gardner - the core of the These Hopeful Machines production team.

James Gardner Biography

James Gardner is a freelance composer, broadcaster, performer and lecturer based in Auckland.

Gardner co-founded the group/remix team Apollo 440 in London in 1990.

Following encouragement from English composer and pianist Michael Finnissy, Gardner left Apollo 440 in 1993 in order to concentrate on composition and in the same year attended Brian Ferneyhough's classes at the Viitasaari Summer Academy in Finland.
In 1996, after moving to New Zealand, he established the ensemble 175 East, which he directed until 2010. During this time the group gained an international reputation, commissioned many new works and gave numerous acclaimed world premiere performances.

James was the recipient of the 2003 CANZ Trust Fund Award, awarded annually for compositional achievement by the Composers' Association of New Zealand.

He was the inaugural Creative New Zealand/Victoria University composer-in-residence from 2004-2005 and was holder of the Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange residency in 2005/2006, during which he worked with the new music ensemble ELISION.

In 2001 James made a series of five hour-long programmes on Frank Zappa for Radio NZ Concert. He has since made many substantial features for the station on a variety of contemporary composers including John Cage, Morton Feldman and Iannis Xenakis, as well as features on The Moog synthesizer and the James Bond soundtracks of John Barry.

More recently, James contributed a chapter on Frank Zappa’s use of tape editing to the Ashgate book ‘Frank Zappa and the And’.

James lectures on 20th century music history and music technology and has taught at the University of Canterbury, Unitec Institute of Technology and the University of Auckland.

Episode 1
Everything Audible in the World Becomes Material
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2565758/these-hopeful-machines-programme-1

Episode 2
Raindrops In The Sun
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2565759/these-hopeful-machines-programme-2

Episode 3
Fag ends and lollipops
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2565760/these-hopeful-machines-programme-3

Episode 4
I was Born to Synthesize
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2566329/these-hopeful-machines-programme-4

Episode 5
Load Your Program. I am Yourself.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2567131/these-hopeful-machines-programme-5

Episode 6
A Dance To The Music of Time
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/2572263/these-hopeful-machines-programme-6

Outtakes
http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/20130907