And so we close as we began with another of those arcane corners of recorded sound, a collection of John Baker’s electronica conceived in the same BBC department from which Delia Derbyshire sent children scurrying behind the couch with her arrangement of Ron Grainer’s theme music for Doctor Who. British readers may know that John Baker was the brother of the BBC newsreader, Richard Baker, back when the Corporation had modest funds to support the innovative work being done at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Baker was an amazingly resourceful composer with an evident sense of humour and the ability to create music out of pure sound, something that we take for granted since synthesisers came out of the sonic laboratory and into the dance clubs.
Jonny Trunk is once again responsible for compiling this collection of imaginative pieces, most of them soundtracks for radio dramas or short themes for news or magazine programmes, my favourite being an appearance by Baker explaining how he created the insanely fleet, marimba-like piece accompanying the Reading Your Letters feature on the long-running BBC Radio 4 show, Woman’s Hour. Armed only with razorblades and a cider bottle from which water was slowly emptied, Baker recorded this sound and then edited it to create the pitches and duration of his rapid melody. I trust his enthusiastic explanation satisfied the "listener from Tring" as much as it may delight us to this day.
