Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) a
pioneer electronic musician working at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960's. She is responsible (along with Ron Grainer
composer and Dick Mills her
sound engineer) for the first (and undoubtedly the best)
Dr Who theme, in 1963. Her
macabre music style is startlingly original and often brings a chill to the spine, her music has unsettled me more than any other. Sadly Delia never got much recognition for her work, her music appeared in a couple of films (eg:
The Legend of Hell House) and a couple of compilation records of early electronic music, but today few people would recognise her name. Her beautifully
disturbing music lives on.
The Delia Derbyshire tunes that I can remember right now are: "Dreams", "Blue Veils and Golden Sands", "The Delian Mode", "Delia's Theme", "Kepler" - there are more. It is extremely difficult to find Delia Derbyshire mp3's on the net, your best bet is a peer to peer file transfer system such as Winmx, kazaa etc.
Delia has appeared on the following compilations, some may still be available on cd:
"White Noise" - Island music, "Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 3 - The Leisure Hive", "BBC Radiophonic music" (LP) 1971