At our 30th Manchester Girl Geeks tea party we adopted a musical theme.
Celebrating the work of digital sound innovator Delia Derbyshire, we were entertained by composer Emily Howard, experimental musician Lisa and geek songstress Helen Arney.
Naomi Kashiwagi from the Delia Derbyshire Project talked about Delia’s creative approach to creating new sounds, including capturing the resonance of her favourite green lampshade.
Naomi tipped us off that the ensemble created as part of the project, Delia’s Darlings, would be appearing on a new CBBC series about science presented by Dick and Dom.
You can hear Naomi’s Blues Graphonica Remix on SoundCloud.
Performer Lisa demonstrated how she used the technique of capturing her own voice and then signing on top of it in layers to creative a distinctive sound. You can also hear her music on SoundCloud where she performs in the act Veladrome. They have a gig at the Ruby Lounge on March 2nd – more details here.
Next up was composer Emily Howard who explained how she uses references from maths and physics to inform her work. Her orchestral piece Magnetite sees the melodies it contains taking the paths of particles in a giant crystal lattice.
Emily also shared some work inspired by the work of Ada Lovelace, an operatic ‘sketch’ which imagines that the analytical engine might compose music.
You can find details of all of Emily Howard’s work on her website.
Helen Arney rounded off the afternoon with some of her signature geeky / sciencey / saucy ukelele numbers. She even had a nice animation to go with her tune You and Me and Walt Disney, a romantic number about cryogenics.
Helen’s a regular on the science festival circuit and also tours with Festival of the Spoken Nerd. To listen to You and Me and Walt Disney and find out what she’s generally up to visit her website.
Our next event will be Manchester Raspberry Jam on Sunday 17th February @ MadLab.
