'Human' by Alexis Maxwell (visuals) & Joel Foster (music) for Delia Derbyshire Day 2023.
Audio mastered by Chris McCormack at Blacklisted Mastering.
‘Human’ is a cross-disciplinary exploration of the Delia Derbyshire Archive and the original composition of the Doctor Who theme. Experimental sound and animation create a sci-fi short that draws from Derbyshire’s notes, Classic Who imagery and people’s perception of what it means to be human. The track was especially inspired by Derbyshire's work on a radio piece, Amor Dei (1964), in which she accompanied the voices of real individuals to aurally explore contemporary perceptions of God and faith. Building on this concept, Alexis and Joel conducted interviews with members of the local community, using these real-life narratives as the foundation for a science-fiction that remains rooted in real perspectives.
Delia Derbyshire’s use of graphic scores were a central point of inspiration for Alexis. While these sequences were intended to be a visual representation of sound, Alexis began to wonder how they might translate to imagery. This led to the creation of a range of landscapes and alien lifeforms, generated from the shapes found in the archive. The illustrations used are sketch-like and textured, to reflect the scrawled notes Derbyshire left on the back of letters and scrap paper.
Joel was particularly inspired by Delia’s working notes from the John Rylands Archive to explore new methods of generating musical material. For example, many of the sounds heard throughout the track, and the rhythm of the main Doctor Who-esque melody, are a musical manifestation of the spelling of Delia’s name in morse code. In addition to this, much of the harmony used in the track is built on the mode that results from the numericisation, and pitch class association, of the spelling of Delia's first name (D=4, E=5, L=12, I=9, A=1).
Commissioned by Delia Derbyshire Day (2023). Produced in partnership with Brighter Sound. Gratefully funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund.