01 In the Kingdom of Colours * Previously Unreleased (Through A Glass Darkly – Composed and Realised by Peter Howell, (19.28) A Lyrical Adventure) BBC Radiophonic Workshop (BBC Music) Peter Howell – Piano, Synthesisers, Acoustic Guitar 02 (4.03) Caches of Gold Terence Emery – Timpani Howard Tibble – Drums 03 Magenta Court (4.26) and Brian Hussey 04 Colour Rinse (2.36) Tony Catchpole – Electric Guitar Des McCamley – Bass Guitar 05 Wind in the Wires (2.16 ) Sebastian Bell – Flute (“Moving Form”) Ross Pople – Cello (“Moving Form”) 06 The Astronauts ( 5.18 ) Produced by Peter Howell and Mike Harding This edition Compiled, Produced and Mastered by Mark Ayres Bonus Tracks: THE BODY IN QUESTION 07 Moving Form (Main Theme from The Body in Question) (1.45) 08 Greenwich Chorus (2.20) 09 Mesmer (3.40) 10 The Astronauts (Single Version) (3.21) 11 In the Kingdom of Colours (Through A Glass Darkly) Alternative Mix (19.29) * NOTES BY PETER HOWELL piece; so I am delighted that, for this re-issue, it ‘The Astronauts’ started out as a piece for a has reverted to its original title. programme called ‘Space for Man’. I had just There were twelve swing doors between my completed a somewhat lacklustre session using Radiophonic studio on the ground floor and Not many people realise that ‘Magenta Court’ orchestral players when a rather obvious thought Maida Vale Studio 4 downstairs. I remember this was named after a block of flats. I used to walk occurred to me. Why was I using traditional with such clarity because of the number of times from BBC Maida Vale in Delaware Road to a orchestral sounds, when this was a programme late at night I struggled through them carrying gym and swimming pool in Ladbroke Grove. I about something new and exciting. It was now the ARP synthesiser or some other bit of gear, remember on one occasion sharing the pool around 6 o’clock in the evening. The director of in order to record them with the Steinway with Angela Rippon. It was just her, and me; the broadcast would be eager to hear how the piano. The piano in the Workshop was OK for she gliding serenely across the surface of the session had gone, and I knew that something occasional use, but I wanted my solo album with pool, me making waves on the other side. I was had to be pulled out of the hat… BBC records to feature the piano throughout the walking back to work, musing on the fact that first side of the LP, and it had to be the Steinway. I had just shared the pool with a celebrity (at I started to play around on the ARP synthesiser. To this day, I have an uneasy relationship with that moment she was clearly not thinking the There are one or two automated features on it, fire doors; despite their obvious benefits, to me same), when I passed a fairly average block including a repeated note trigger. I set that up they are still the enemy. of flats called Magnolia‘ Court’. In fact all the and played a low E. We had all inherited many flats around there were named after colours, techniques previously used at the Workshop, a The piece was intended to be allegorical. Magnolia, Violet, and Magenta. I had already lot of them using tape manipulation. So I started The piano represented the main character, started work on the piece and hadn’t got a title up the Studer tape machine to supply echoes, the protagonist, who stood for ‘good’. The for it, so I decided to use one of the names. It had but they were not the right speed. So I lowered character’s journey through the piece represents associations with ‘In The Court of the Crimson the LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) on the ARP the triumph of good over evil, a journey through King’ by King Crimson, whilst being decidedly to reduce the speed of the notes, and something a landscape that was forever changing and tongue in cheek. rather unexpected happened. There was one challenging. With all that in mind, I had decided point at which the rhythm accelerated into a to call the piece ‘In the Kingdom of Colours’. ‘Wind in the Wires’ was a number written and gallop. The first note was now being echoed recorded in my studio in Hove, Sussex, shortly after the second note, which was being echoed On Side Two of the album, ‘Colour Rinse’ - an after I had joined the BBC, whilst I was finishing after the third, and so on. The simplest phrase out-and-out piece of seventies synthesiser pop a solo album under the H&F Recordings label. It suddenly became magically intricate. This was - was designed to be the antidote to Side One. I was all achieved using track bouncing between the turning point in the writing of what was to felt that after listening to the A-side entitled ‘In two Revox stereo tape recorders, and it’s rather become ‘The Astronauts’. the Kingdom of Colours’ you would need a cold pleasing to see it alongside all the other tracks shower, and this track was supposed to ‘rinse recorded in the far better equipped BBC studios; Although pieces of music are often named with out all the colours’. Unfortunately the whole even more satisfying to know that it was used as the title of the programme they appeared in, plan fell apart when the album’s BBC Records title music to a regular programme for German for administrative purposes they have names producer decided to change the name of the broadcasting for many years. of their own. The title music to ‘The Body In Question’ was called ‘Moving Form’. Its name the catalyst that eventually resulted in The During ‘The Body in Question’ there was one was inspired by the way they created the visuals Greenwich Chorus. studio recording that is hard to forget. Anton for the series. Rather than have a graphics or Mesmer claimed to cure all manner of ailments animated sequence they decided to use an I had a tape of Flamsteed’s Clock made by the with magnetism and one such group healing was actual body, but in order for it to be less plain or sound recordist who had been present at the to be re-enacted as a mime-to-music performed clumsy, the body had to be disguised in some shoot in the Greenwich Observatory, and laid by Lindsay Kemp’s company. way. So they acquired a massive sheet of latex, that down onto one track of the multitrack. This stretched it over a large frame which looked a piece was going to be at 60 beats per minute, the Lindsay Kemp was always flamboyant, and little like a tall bed frame, and lit it from below. clock would see to that. So whilst listening to it, so were the members of his troop. They were In a very secretive session, a naked model was I sat in front of the EMS Vocoder making vocal all dressed in outrageous costumes that were hired to move on top of this highly pliable sheet, noises into a microphone whilst playing chords clearly of the period, but also designed to whilst the camera filmed from the floor upwards. on the synthesiser keyboard. The resulting shock. One of the men dressed as a woman The result was a fascinating hint of a shifting electronic vocal harmonies could be heard wore a ship on his head. His contortions and human form that never showed its entire shape through my headphones. Very soon it became convulsions would make this scene one of the at once but offered the viewer a glimpse of clear what sort of melody would work given that most memorable in the whole series! various parts of the body that undulated with tempo, and for reasons of convenience, the key the music. of G major seemed to work well. – Peter Howell, April 2019 There was to be a sequence in ‘The Body What followed was a long series of experiments. in Question’ referring to The Royal Society, I have a digital transcription of the whole of with images of The Greenwich Observatory, the multitrack tape that I used to make The particularly of Flamsteed’s clock. It was one of Greenwich Chorus and the final piece only those occasions when Patrick Uden, Jonathan occurs over a 45 second section in the middle Miller and myself had a chance to discuss the of the tape. All the rest is filled with failed piece in some detail. I think I was somewhat experiments. In those days, it was easier to hesitant about how to start writing it; it clearly record all your attempts one after the other; had to have a classical feel but also needed to nowadays retakes tend to be recorded across be part of the total score of the programme, one the same section of timeline. which featured some quite electronic-sounding material. The events on the night of its first broadcast were unusual to say the least. It’s difficult to say “Perhaps a chorale might work, like Purcell” exactly how many calls it took in 1978 to jam the BBC switchboard, but jammed it was. They had Jonathan must have thought it was just an heard what they thought was a human voice but incidental passing remark but to me it was weren’t entirely sure. NOTES BY MARK AYRES new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, with a documentary series, ‘The Body in Question’.