We founded DeliaPhonic in 2017 after realising that many people in Coventry—the city where Delia Derbyshire grew up during the Blitz—were unaware of how the sounds she heard as a child, from air-raid sirens to the all-clear, profoundly shaped her later love of abstract sound and electronic music.
Since then, DeliaPhonic has grown into an ongoing programme of events and commissions exploring sound, place and experimentation, including sonic performances, installations, immersive and spatial sound works, talks, workshops, projections, film screenings, kids raves, DJ sets, documentary projects and school programmes.
In 2026, the project will explore Delia’s techniques and how they can be translated into VR, supported by CreaTech Frontiers and developed in collaboration with Coventry University’s Immersive Team.
Over the years, we have worked with a wide range of artists, composers, filmmakers, organisations, designers and thinkers, including:
Julian House // Hannah Peel // Cosey Fanni Tutti // Natalie Sharp (Lone Taxidermist) // Jerry Dammers // Halina Rice // // Panda Bear // Loraine James // David Holmes // Stealing Sheep // Lia Mice // Richard Fearless // Sonic Boom // Cristinana Llie // Loula Yorke // DJ Food // Fennella (Jane Weaver) // Yuri Suzuki // NikNak // Snapped Ankles // Lisa Rovner (Sisters With Transistors) // Caroline Catz (The Myths & Legandary Tapes of Delia Derbyshire) // White Noise // LoneLady // Bill Drummond // Madelon Hooykaas // Radiophonic Workshop // Selena Godden // Jonny Trunk // The Orb (Dr Alex Paterson) // Indira Prasad // Stewy Stencils // Squidsoup // Nik Ramage // Venus Ex Machina // School of Noise // Brian Hodgson // John Higgs // Dr David Butler // Andrew O’Neill // Stuart Maconie // Jude Rees is Madrigirl // Beautify Junkyards // Neil Kulkarni // Ian Helliwell // Richard Norris // Cries From The LTN // Big Fish Little Fish // Cosmic Neighbourhood // Stone Anthem // Echo Juliet // Rosie Tee // Pram // Paul Toller // Cites Prepare For Attack // Paddy Steer // Howlround // The New Obsolescents // PuttyRubber // Aja Ireland // EYSA // Matekio - Daisy Dickinson & Maxim Baron // Looking Glass Alice // George Shaw // Vanishing Twin // Peter Zinovieff // Alex Miles // Hassan K // Mark Ayres // Neil Seely // Innerstrings // Sm^sher // Delia Derbyshire Day // The Oram Awards // The British Council // Sensoria // GhostBox Records // Supersonic // Loss<>Gain //Journey To Nutopia // Coventry University // Flatpack // Coventry Cathedral // Arts Council England // Heart of England // Coventry City of Culture // Intro // National Lottery Hertigage Fund // IKO Spatial Aesthetics - University Of Greenwich // Anti/Type Films //
Immersive Art & Delia Derbyshire
In 2022 we staged a four-day immersive arts festival inside Coventry Cathedral that brought together sound, light, performance and technology in ways that directly echoed Delia Derbyshire’s radical approach to making music. With the blessing of Delia’s close friend and collaborator Peter Kember (Sonic Boom), the festival was titled
DeliaPhonic
Multi-sensory Electronic Sound, Music and Arts.
The name was not invented for the occasion. It was drawn directly from plans Delia and Peter had been developing in the late 1990s for a new kind of festival—one that rejected traditional boundaries between music, sound, art and technology, and instead prioritised interaction, experimentation and multisensory experience.
Although the festival never came to fruition during Delia’s lifetime, we believe the vision they outlined was remarkably prescient, foreshadowing what we now recognise as immersive and experiential art.
Below is an excerpt from an interview in which Delia Derbyshire and Sonic Boom discuss their plans. The language is strikingly contemporary and closely aligns with how immersive practice is now understood.
Sonic Boom - We are also planning an electronic music festival. What’s our acronym, Delia? MEMA, is it?
Delia Derbyshire - No, MESMA. Multi-sensory Electronic Sound, Music and Arts. That is because there is a line which people might like to draw for themselves… the difference between electronic sound and electronic music. And we want to associate it with light and vibrations of every sort, including tactile vibrations. A tie-in between sound and light, movement, sculpture…
Sonic Boom - A whole day or two of experiences, for people to check out electronic sound from the past, and the present, and hopefully the future. We’re considering various workshops including one where Delia would show some of the techniques involved with tape splicing…
Delia Debyshire - And a VCS3 with an elongated joystick…
Sonic Boom - and very simple things like a theremin. For people to be able to try a theremin… it’ll be a big deal to a lot of kids. What sums it up best, apart from electronic, is interactive. We’re very keen for people to be able try stuff, and experience the joy of it…
Delia Debyshire - And lie on the vibrating bed!
Sonic Boom - To experience sounds in as many ways as possible and experience the joy of it through various unusual sound controllers and performances by various pioneering sound sculptors…
Delia Debyshire…and by smelling the fibre-optic flowers.
DeliaPhonic is a project created by Sarah Morgan, Alex Miles & Martin Leape and is produced by The Tin Music & Arts
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