Biography
David Vorhaus is an American-born classical bass player with a background in both physics and electronic engineering. He co-founded the band The White Noise in London in 1969 with Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson.
Though Derbyshire and Hodgson left the group in the early 70s, Vorhaus continued to record under the name The White Noise.
In 1969 The White Noise released the groundbreaking album An Electric Storm on Island Records. The album was created using a variety of tape manipulation techniques, and is notable for its early use of the first British synthesizer, the EMS Synthi VCS3. Amongst many oddities, the first track on the album Love Without Sound employed speeded up tape edits of Vorhaus playing the double bass to create violin and cello sounds.
"I use voices a lot too, but not as conventional vocals. I always use a lot of voices, and if somebody having an orgasm in the background is used as part of one of the waveforms, it makes the sound more interesting, without the listener actually knowing what they're hearing." Interview with David Vorhaus
Although not initially commercially successful for Island, it has over the years proved to be a cult classic, going on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide. It has been namechecked by such contemporary artists as The Orb and Julian Cope, while influencing such contemporary acts Broadcast, Add N to (X), and Stereolab.
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