Lost electronic sounds to perform at Science Museum Time Loops exhibition

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A VCS4 analogue synthesiser that has taken pride of place at Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios will play a key role at a special event at the Science Museum.

The VCS4 synthesiser, made of two analogue synthesisers. There are oscillators and it is enclosed in a wooden case.

The unique VCS4 synthesiser

The event will also spotlight VCS3 synthesisers (instruments which were used by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop) and ShoZygs.  

The VCS4 analogue synthesiser, built for British composer Harrison Birtwistle's performance of Medusa in 1970, will take to the stage as part of the Science Museum’s Time Loops exhibition. Goldsmiths graduate Trudi Veremu will play the VCS4 during the exhibition where new works from internationally celebrated composers Sarah Angliss, Gavin Bryars and Shiva Feshareki will be presented, specially devised with the ensemble Icebreaker, exploring the possibilities of historic sound technologies.  

Instead of putting the VCS4 on display, the exhibition aims to showcase what would otherwise be lost sounds, allowing for a more interactive approach to understanding the instrument’s history. Ed McKeon, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Music, is the Principal Investigator for the Time Loops project. 

Time Loops is an intervention in the way that museums remember. We're not separated from objects of the past by plate glass but immersed among them.

Ed McKeon, Associate Lecturer, Music

The VCS4, made up of two EMS VCS3 analogue synthesisers and acquired by Goldsmiths in 2019, is a unique instrument. Unlike digital synthesisers of today, it came without an operator's manual. The enigmatic sounds contained within had to be coaxed out through a process of trial and error. Trudi Veremu discovered the VCS4 while studying at Goldsmiths, spending months learning how to play it due to its singular nature. Playing the VCS4 has now become intuitive,  

You can almost feel the sound waves hitting each other. It and I become like one. It’s almost like talking to it.

Trudi Veremu, graduate, MMus Sonic Arts

Trudi added, “Hearing the VCS4 together with organic instruments is incredible, because that’s the way that the person who built it intended it to be played.”  

Graduate Trudi Veremu, wearing a brown jumper, plays the VCS4 synthesiser.

Trudi Veremu and the VCS4

ShoZygs - homemade instruments crafted by composer and innovator Hugh Davies, who was the founder and first director of Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios – will also form part of the performance. Uniquely, they were among the first amplified electronic music instruments designed to be played live.  

A new ShoZyg instrument with an image of constellations as the background.

One of the completed ShoZygs, photographed by Ian Stonehouse

Four new ShoZyg instruments have been specially produced by Ian Stonehouse (Head of the Electronic Music Studios), Dr James Bulley and Jake Tyler (a recent graduate) for the Time Loops project. 

“For this project we were lucky to have a large assortment of Hugh's original materials from his home studio - such as springs, cables, contact microphones, and fretsaw blades - which enabled us to make accurate 'period' copies. What's unique about them is that they were among the very first amplified electronic music instruments designed to be played live, as opposed to being purely studio based,” explained Ian Stonehouse. 

The significance of the VCS4’s musical outing at the Science Musuem event contains an historic irony – its original owners did not gift it to a museum because they wanted it to continue to be played. Ed McKeon believes that its current home at Goldsmiths accurately reflects the intentions of its inventor. 

“The unique VCS4, loaned to the project by Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios (EMS), was given to the EMS rather than the Science Museum precisely so that it could continue to be used. Its presence and activation in Time Loops will be a unique moment to show that it hasn't retired but its circuits are still beating strongly.”