Saturday, April 24, 2010

Frederick Judd


As far as I know Frederick Judd cut two of these electronic 7"s for Castle records in the early 1960s. One of them, entitled "Electronic Themes and Musique Concrête," appeared on one of Creel Pone's "Creelpolation" anthologies of early electronic 45s. This is the other one. Judd was something of a dark horse in early British electronic music. He contributes some of the best tracks on the Studio G release "Electronic Age" in 1970. And here, about ten years earlier, he fires up the ring modulator and floats up into the night sky on a cloud of exhaust fumes and electro scree. The dense squall of feedback and plucked bass and eerie scrapyard sounds is probably not to everybody's taste. It's the sound of fear awakening on a crew of astronauts who has just experienced equipment failure and lost contact with the known world. It's dissonant and scary, to be sure, but there's a kind of peaceful still point at the heart of all the noise if you listen closely.

9 comments:

  1. thank you very much for this one, excellent.

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  2. more images:

    http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1693484

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  3. You're very welcome -- thanks for tuning in.

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  4. Superb post, and a great blog all round.

    Stefan M— • http://friendsound.wordpress.com

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  5. Stefan, thanks for stopping by -- I read your blog all the time.

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  6. I am currently making a film about Fred Judd - "Practical Electronica", with the focus on his electronic music. He was a musician, inventor, designer and author, and had a most fascinating career. With the help of his widow Freda, I`m sure there`ll be enough material to do him justice. Currently researching and compiling information - the bulk of the filming will be later this year on super 8.
    www.ianhelliwell.co.uk

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  7. I'll look forward to seeing that, Ian. I think your Tone Generation series is amazing, by the way.

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  8. Thanks! The next Tone Generation will be Women in Electronic Music, currently in production. By the way, picking up another thread, the narration on the 1967 Practical Electronics flexi is not by FC Judd - he supplied all the sounds but not the voice - I`m afraid I don`t know who that is. I do though have a tape with one of Fred`s early 60s lectures, parts of which will definitely appear in the film.

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