In 1964/5 playwright and actor
Barry Bermange created a series of audio collages he called
‘Inventions For Radio’ for the BBC Third Programme (now Radio 3).
The 'Inventions' took the form of a number of recorded interviews with individuals on a given subject (Dreams, God, Dying, The Afterlife), which were then chopped up into soundbites and then woven together to form a narrative.
The human voices were further augmented by some filters and effects and an electronic background and sound effects from the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop created by the totally wonderful Miss
Delia Derbyshire.
The recordings are not commercially available, but I do have three out of the four. Here's the first two parts ('Death Is Going From Shadow To Reality' and 'It's Just Like Going To Sleep') of
'The Afterlife', originally broadcast on the first of April, a fairly frivolous date for a work described as 'a dream of Death'. The voices come from the Old People's Welfare Council in Hornsey. I find it very moving.
Part two tomorrow.
