Essential footage of early electronic music pioneers Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire.

In the 1960s, weird new sounds were infiltrating mass media. Cosmic tones generated through electricity, first heard by most through sci-fi radio and TV shows or advertisements looking to jolt ears, were becoming organized through repetition and tone variation. Electronic pulses were morphing into beats and melodies, and a whole new universe was being born.

The sounds didn’t generate themselves, of course. In studios and labs around the world, the first electronic music composers were establishing themselves — and luckily, a few documentaries regarding that era offer a fount of information, especially on the goings-on in the UK.

In the US, artists and inventors including Morton Subotnik, Pauline Oliveros, Raymond Scott, and Robert Moog invented or harnessed instruments to make revolutionary pieces; Subotnik’s “Silver Apples on the Moon,” Oliveros’ aptly titled “A Little Noise in the System,” and Scott’s work with Manhattan Research creating electronic jingles, logos, and commercial music. In Japan, Toshi Ichiyanagi harnessed static and wave forms to explore the electronic terrain; his “Extended Voices” from 1967 used recorded voices, and various bleeps, bloops and zips to create a work that seemed to probe this wild new world.

In England, Delia Derbyshire harnessed the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create works for radio and TV.

For example, the Dr. Who theme. The above BBC Archive documentary on how Derbyshire made the theme to the British sci-fi show is ridiculously informative; you’ll exit the interview armed with basic details on sound construction.

Made in 1970, the 20-minute educational documentary below, Discovering Electronic Music, is an essential time capsule of the wonder that came with the arrival of, quite literally, new sounds. It was made by the British Film Archive.

One of the most important figures of the era, Daphne Oram, co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958, and created the Oramics machine, an early sound synthesis device.

Her synopsis of the synth’s promise and workings captures the essence of synthetic music: “You take a sound, any sound, record it and then change it’s nature by a multiplicity of operations. You record it at different speeds; you play it backwards; you add it to itself over and over again. You adjust filters, echoes, acoustic qualities. You produce a vast and subtle symphony. It’s a sort of modern magic. We think there’s something in it. Some musicians believe it may become an artform in its own right.”

She was right, to say the least.