White Noise
Billingham, UK
1968–present
David Vorhaus
Mike Painter
Annie Bird
Delia Derbyshire
Brian Hodgson
Mark Jenkins
Paul Lytton
Val Shaw
John Whitman
Biography[edit]
An Electric Storm[edit]
In June 1969 White Noise released the groundbreaking album An Electric Storm on Island Records. The album was created using a variety of tape manipulation techniques, and used the first British synthesizer, the EMS Synthi VCS3. Amongst many oddities, the first track on the album, Love Without Sound, employed sped-up tape edits of Vorhaus playing the double bass to create violin and cello sounds. Although not initially commercially successful for Island, the album is now considered an important and influential album in the development of electronic music,[4] namechecked by contemporary artists like The Orb and Julian Cope, influencing contemporary acts such as Broadcast, Add N to (X), and Secret Chiefs 3.[2] Peter Kember of Spacemen 3 included 'Firebird' on his 2004 curated compilation Spacelines.
White Noise 2-III-IV-V[edit]
Following the departure of Derbyshire and Hodgson, to pursue other projects, Vorhaus released a second album, the largely instrumental White Noise 2 - Concerto for Synthesizer on Virgin Records in 1974. It was recorded in his own studio in Camden, North London. The album further utilized the EMS VCS 3, as well as prototype sequencers. A third album, the single track 'space fantasy' White Noise III - Re-Entry was released by Pulse Records in 1980. A further two albums were released, the atmospheric White Noise IV - Inferno (AMP Music) (1990) incorporated the use of samples, and White Noise V - Sound Mind (AMP Music; 2000), an experiment in what Vorhaus called "dark ambient".
From 1980's Vorhaus has made electronic library music recordings for KPM Music, De Wolfe Music using Fairlight CMI.[9] Vorhaus has written music for TV and film and his music features on TV commercials and TV themes.[7] His recordings include: