The Tone Generation

The Tone Generation is Ian´s 10 part radio series; a personal selection of early electronic music drawn from his own records and cds, looking at composers from different countries or regions of the world in the analogue era.
Within the limitations of his collection and the half hour time slot, the programmes will hopefully act as a useful and enlightening overview of electronic music as it developed in many different countries, and will be of special interest to enthusiasts and students interested in the history of analogue electronics, from the formative days up to the 1970s.

It was first transmitted between April and June 2008 on Resonance FM.
Produced by Simon James
Credit announcements by Anna Dumitriu
Written, researched and presented by Ian Helliwell

Further one-off Tone Generation programmes are planned for the future – keep an eye out for details.

The Tone Generation programmes are available as a podcast – listen via this link

Programme 1: Great Britain
Music by: Desmond Briscoe, Daphne Oram, Desmond Leslie, Tristram Cary, Roberto Gerhard, Fred Judd and Malcolm Clarke.
Programme 2: France
Music by: Pierre Schaefer, Iannis Xenakis, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Henry with Michel Colombier and with Spooky Tooth, Ivo Malec and Bernard Parmegiani.
Programme 3: Germany
Music by: Walter Ruttman, Oskar Sala, Herbert Eimert, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Gyorgy Ligeti and Kraftwerk.
Programme 4: Italy
Music by: Luigi Russolo, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, Vittorio Gelmetti and John Eaton
Programme 5: Holland and Belgium
Music by: Henk Badings, Henri Pousseur, Ton Bruynel, Leo Kupper, Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan.
Programme 6: Scandanavia
Music by: Rune Lindblad, Karl Birger Blomdahl, Ralph Lundsten, Else Marie Pade, Erkki Kurenniemi and Arne Nordheim.
Programme 7: Eastern Europe
Music by: Edward Artemiev with Yuri Bogdanov, Eugeniusz Rudnik, Bohdan Mazurek, Josef Malovec, Miloslav Istvan, and Ivan Patachich.
Programme 8: USA
Music by: Louis & Bebe Barron, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Milton Babbitt, Morton Subotnick, Haig Mardirosian, Raymond Scott and Gil Melle.
Programme 9: Canada
Music by: Hugh le Caine, Phillip Werren, Barry Truax, Norman McLaren and R. Murray Schafer.
Programme 10: Southern Hemisphere

Ian has put together an analogue history chart to give an overview of electronic music development across the world up to 1970 – this formed the basis of the Tone Generation series.