Cosey Fanni Tutti has announced details of a new album, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes, her original soundtrack recordings for Caroline Catz's acclaimed film about Derbyshire.
In 2018, Cosey Fanni Tutti was commissioned to write the soundtrack to
director and actor Caroline Catz's acclaimed, intimate portrayal of the
composer, musician, and sonic experimentalist, Delia Derbyshire
(1937-2001). Best known for her groundbreaking work on the 1963 Doctor Who
theme tune, Derbyshire was instrumental in giving easy access to and
rewiring a nation's attitudes towards electronic music. Working within
the often-stifling confines of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, her
experimentalism -- which saw her manipulating magnetic tape, found
sounds and electronics -- is only now being given full credit for the
immeasurable impact it has had on the way we hear the world. The new
album includes the audio explorations and experiments that lead Cosey
Fanni Tutti to the final soundtrack for Catz's film. From the
four-minute long "Cornet Lament" to the humorous "Snuff Chorus" (which
references an addiction that Derbyshire had for snuff), the album is a
journey through both Delia and Cosey's practise -- Fanni Tutti spent
time researching Derbyshire's archives (both musical and the more
personal ephemera of her life) to create an audio world for Catz's
depiction of the artist to inhabit. Fanni Tutti explains, "The
compositions are inspired by my research of the Delia Derbyshire audio
archive, Delia's original compositional notes and techniques which in
combination with my admiration and love of Delia's work provided a way
to integrate her style and approach to music with my own. An alliance of
our sensibilities." The new album follows the release of Cosey Fanni
Tutti's new book, RE-SISTERS: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti.
The music was composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti in
Twickenham Studio 3, London and Studio 47 in Norfork, with vocals by
Cosey Fanni Tutti and Caroline Catz, alongside the voice of Delia
Derbyshire.
Musician, artist, and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has
continually challenged boundaries and conventions for four decades. As a
founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, as one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey,
and as an artist channeling her experience in pornographic modelling
and striptease, her work on the margins has come to reshape the
mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019's Tutti and her debut book, Art Sex Music, was published in 2017.
English