Dr. Val Stephen, a ‘Gentleman Amateur’ in Australian Electronic Music Experiment of the 1960s

Abstract

This article uses the example of Dr. Val Stephen, a Melbourne anaesthetist believed to be the first Australia-based composer to have a record of electronic music released overseas, to discuss an unexplored category woven into the tapestry of Australian electronic music experiment of the 1960s; namely, that of the ‘hobby experimentalist’. The article shows that while Stephen might be conveniently categorized as a ‘hobby experimentalist’ who tapped into various do-it-yourself sources available in Australia by the 1960s, his music was inspired by much more unconventional influences, including the primitivist art of his sculptor father, Dr. Clive Stephen. The article examines the rapidly shifting 1960s Australian context for electronic music experiment, Stephen's background, influences and the resources he used to learn about and create electronic music, and the music itself, as preserved in several boxes of reel-to-reel tape that have remained untouched since his death.