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Artist News Digital Gigs & Festivals
Radiophonic Workshop to ride internet latency in new online live performance
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 16 November 2020
Members of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop are set to take part in a performance later this month that will take advantage of delays in data travelling around the internet. ‘Latency’ was apparently inspired by lockdown Zoom calls.
The slight delay in each side of an online chat reaching the other is something most people will be aware of. It makes playing music with others remotely difficult, if not impossible, as each player will be out of sync with the others.
However, the Workshop’s Bob Earland and Paddy Kingsland have used this delay to allow them to play live while apart – intentionally not trying to play together, but instead riding that latency.
“We had the bright idea of using that latency to make a loop of music”, Earland tells The Observer. “The sound gets sent to someone, and they add to it, and it keeps going round. So you’re not relying on everyone being on the same clock”.
The performance will take place on 22 Nov at 8pm on the Radiophonic Workshop YouTube channel.
