Season three of The Film Scorer Podcast is finally here! Joining me is legendary musician and composer Cosey Fanni Tutti. Film music fans may not be quite as familiar with Cosey, who’s best known for being a founding member of the band Throbbing Gristle, arguably the pioneers of industrial music. However, Cosey has also been busy with solo work, collaborations, and even film scoring. As such, we primarily discuss her score for the film Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes, about the influential electronic musician and composer Delia Derbyshire. We also talk about her new book, Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti, which serves as a “meditation on womanhood, creativity and self-expression, and a revelatory exploration into the lives of three visionary artists” (description courtesy of Faber).
Cosey’s score is fascinating, weird, and, at times, completely haunting; I really enjoyed it. It released on September 16 and is now available on CD, vinyl and digitally on the artist’s own label, Conspiracy International. Cosey’s other music, both as a solo artist and in her various collaborations and bands, is also widely available.
Have a listen to our conversation below or wherever you get your podcasts (including Spotify and Apple Podcasts).
Season three is now in full bore, and I’m quite excited for what’s ahead. I have a lot of great names already signed up, both the known and perhaps the less-known. Should be a great season. Happy listening.
About Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes
“Following on from its acclaimed premiere at the BFI London Film Festival Oct 2020, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes makes its international premiere at SXSW 2021. The film will also be screened as part of Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 and featured in Spring programming at the BBC on its Arena strand.
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes — a cinematic portrait of the legendary musical innovator Delia Derbyshire — is written and directed by Caroline Catz, who also performs the lead role. Catz’s directorial debut feature-length film, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes is a conceptual and atmospheric journey into the legacy and character of electronic music composer/sound pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who, in 1963 conceived one of the most familiar compositions in science fiction, the Doctor Who theme, while working at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop.
Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes is a life story told through sound. Delia’s own musical creations are featured alongside a soundtrack by musician/performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey, Carter Tutti Void), constructed from samples chosen by Cosey and Catz from Delia’s posthumously discovered “Attic Tapes”. Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes explores the fantasy of an otherworldly creative collaboration, an exchange of ideas between two unique and fascinating maverick female artists, traversing temporal and spiritual planes.” – Courtesy of the Film’s official site.
About the Score
“The new album includes the audio explorations and experiments that lead Cosey Fanni Tutti to the final soundtrack for Catz’s film. From the 4-minute long ‘Cornet Lament’ to the humorous ‘Snuff Chorus’ (which references Derbyshire’s addiction to snuff), the album is a journey through both Delia and Cosey’s practises, and the research work Fanni Tutti spent researching Derbyshire’s archives (both musical and the more personal ephemera of her life) have helped to create a deep and personal audio world for Catz’s depiction of the artist to inhabit.
Cosey Fanni Tutti explains: ‘The compositions are inspired by my research of the Delia Derbyshire audio archive, Delia’s original compositional notes and techniques which in combination with my admiration and love of Delia’s work provided a way to integrate her style and approach to music with my own. An alliance of our sensibilities.‘
The new album follows the release of Cosey Fanni Tutti’s new book, RE-SISTERS: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe and Cosey Fanni Tutti, out now via Faber. The book and the soundtrack recordings are intrinsically linked – Cosey’s research into Derbyshire coincided with her discovery of Margery Kempe and while working on the film, she found herself struck by how Derbyshire, Kempe and Fanni Tutti’s own life experiences felt intertwined. In the book, for the first time, Cosey Fanni Tutti explains her own processes creating music, an invaluable insight into her artistic life.
The music was composed, performed and produced by Cosey at Studio 47 in Norfolk, partly at Twickenham Studio 3 London, with vocals by Cosey Fanni Tutti and Caroline Catz, alongside the voice of Delia Derbyshire.”
