A member of the original White Noise trio ca 1969, along Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, Dave Vorhaus made a handful of LPs for British library music label KPM during the 1980s. Unlike White Noise, who focused on VCS3, this LP is entirely composed on the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument, said to be the first sampler ever commercially produced, though Vorhaus doesn’t seem to use the 16bit/44.1khz sampling facility of the 1985 Series IIx and might be using an earlier model. The Fairlight’s crisp sounds are put to good use in this wonderfully retro-futurist disc (Vorhaus also contributed to a demonstration cassette promoting the Fairlight), and the fascinating sounds of the electronic instrument create many moods and atmospheres, as befits a library music record. The music deserves to be listened at high volume with a good amplifier – only then can you understand the fascination the Fairlight induced. The LP’s front cover comes with a small hologram of the KPM’s logo, and the next-to-last track is nicely titled The Well-Tempered Hologram. Other track titles also bear references to science.
01 Out Of The Dark (2:38)
02 Mainframe Blues (2:53)
03 Light Moves (3:03)
04 Tempus (1:40)
05 Three D (a) (1:08)
06 Three D (b) (0:36)
07 In Shadow (1:32)
08 On The Strip (1:03)
09 Helios (0:55)
10 The DIY Machine (a) (1:06)
11 The DIY Machine (b) (0:37)
12 Gyroscope (2:07)
13 The Labyrinth (2:22)
14 Now You See Me (2:17)
15 Under The Lens (3:28)
16 Now You Don’t (2:32)
17 Sanctus (1:11)
18 Science Today (2:13)
19 Eclipse (1:40)
20 Neutron Club (2:23)
21 The Well-Tempered Hologram (2:46)
22 Bringer Of Darkness (2:19)
Total time 42:30
LP released by KPM, UK, 1985
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Continuo's weblog 
Hi Continuo, BIG thanks for this one. Great sounds.
Hi, Danen. It seems you have a soft spot for vintage electronic sounds.
Many thanks for the KPM David Vorhaus album, it is most appreciated. As someone old enough to remember the Fairlight been demonstrated on Tomorrows World in the early eighties and as an ‘fan’ of any decades musical attempt to evoke the “future” I have to say, this album is just perfect.
There was an interesting Delia Derbyshire retrospective on Radio 4 a few months back that featured Vorhous and Brian Hodgson in conversation and it was completely fascinating when they came to the “White Noise” days and a little about the Electrophon studio which DH was involved with very early on.
The charm of these old synthesizers is hard to resist, even for someone like myyself who isn’t fascinated by gearing.
i’ve just spent the last week or two exploring your wonderful blog and want to say thank you for all the excellent music. this is an amazing collection of stuff. i found some albums that have eluded me for a long time, but i also tried a ton of stuff that i hadn’t heard of. i’m looking forward to listening to it all! thanks again!
Thank you. To be frank, I’m not really surprised people haven’t heard of most of the stuff appeearing here, since this is all pretty obscure. What I continually marvel at, though, is people willing to hear new music on a vague recommendation from this writer. So, please, keep on being adventurous in your music choices!
I do believe this Vorhaus is a holy grail late KPM 1000 series that I have been looking for, for years. You know, at a time when the label had truly exhausted its pre-eminence… EXCEPT for Vorhaus.
I can’t judge the KPM catalog as a whole, but this LP is pleasant to listen. As for the “holy grail”, I just stumbled upon the disc and took it out of curiosity.
Thank you dear unknown person! What you’re doing here is very appreciated