Arushi Jain Celebrates Daphne Oram Alongside Deena Abdelwahed, Cosey Fanni Tutti & More

Daphne Oram was a pioneer of electronic music and one of the first British acts to compose using electronic sounds. At a time when the gender imbalance in music was much starker and presence of women at the technical end of music studios remained not just infrequent but rare, Oram co-founded the BBC Radiophonics Workshop, which would go on to inform the development of British electronic music, set up a personal music studio, designed and constructed her own electronic instrument, created a new technique for graphical sound and incorporated still-nascent electronic music in popular media.

To celebrate the pathfinding musician on her 100th birthday, the record label nonclassical has gathered an all-female group of musicians to create works using samples from the archive of Daphne Oram for the compilation, 'vari/ations - Ode to Oram'.

Included on the 10-track compilation alongside the likes of Tunisia's Deena Abdelwahed, French-Spanish composer Lola de la Mata and Glasgow's Taahliah, is the currently London-based (and erstwhile, San Francisco) Indian-origin artist Arushi Jain. On her track 'Electronic Music Is Loud', Arushi manipulates samples of Oram's voice to create an assortment of psychedelic echoes, pitch sweeps and electrifying noise into a cohesive, dark, propelling rhythmic texture – akin to a techno offering sans the drums.

Listen to the compilation below and follow Arushi Jain for more.

Image by Jordan Munns via Earth Agency