Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Fourteen years after it was closed down, the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop is starting up again.

According to a report on BBC News, composer Matthew Herbert has been appointed creative director. The New Radiophonic Workshop will live online at The Space, a new digital arts service, developed by the Arts Council and the BBC.

Herbert’s first work is a “sonic memorial” to the BBC’s Bush House, which can be heard here. Herbert will be working with Mica Levi, from the band Micachu and the Shapes, Yann Seznec, Max de Wardener, theatre director Lyndsey Turner, Patrick Bergel and broadcast technologist Tony Churnside.

“It is the perfect time for the rebirth of the workshop,” Herbert said. “The rapid pace of change in technologies has meant our imaginations are struggling to keep up.

“By bringing together the people making the technology with people making the music, we are hoping to find engaging answers to some of the modern problems associated with the role of sound and music on the internet, in certain creative forms and within broadcasting.”

The original Radiophonic Workshop was responsible for many key sounds on Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and many others.