AS the world was barely getting used to the new sound of rock ‘n’ roll, one visionary electronics enthusiast was tuning into the future with self-built synthesizers and manipulated magnetic tape in a home-made studio in South Woodford, as JONATHAN BUNN discovered

Electronics Without Tears is a new 35-track compilation of pioneering, otherworldly, electronic music created in the distinctly normal suburban surroundings of Maybank Road, South Woodford, by unassuming Frederick Charles Judd.

Born in Woodford in 1914, his fascination with electronics led him to begin experimenting with sound in the early 1950s.

He had worked on secret radar systems during the Second World War and used his expertise to devise the Chromasonics system, which utilised new amplifying and pulse generating circuitry to create colour visualisations of sound.

Similar to the Oramics system created by BBC Radiophonic Workshop founder Daphne Oram, Chromatics used cathode ray tubes to turn light into electronic sound and the circuitry he developed to change sound is still used in studios today.

Mr Judd became chief editor of Amateur Tape Recordings magazine in 1963 and lectured at the renowned Dartington School of Music in Devon.

Mr Judd’s book Electronic Music and Musique Concrète (a form of music using everyday sounds as a source material) was published a year later.

His wife Freda said the family soon recognised the importance of his research and his exceptional talent.

“At first we were not greatly impressed with the weird noises, nor the invasion of the kitchen for the musique concrète work, but as things progressed, we realised that this was really something,” she said.

Mr Judd started the Castle label to provide sound effects to home audiences, and he completed his own keyboard for manipulating sound before the appearance better known synthesizers such as the Moog.

Months before Dr Who was first screened, the BBC broadcast Space Patrol, a sci-fi puppet show. Mr Judd’s music was the first complete electronic soundtrack for a British television series.

His final book, Electronic Music, was published in 1972, marking the end of his experimental phase, and his equipment and master tapes were sold off after his death in 1992.

Filmaker Ian Helliwell has showcased Mr Judd’s work in the documentary Practical Electronica, which has marked a resurgence of interest in his work after years of being largely overlooked.

“There is a saying that geniuses are never recognised in their own lifetime,” Freda continued. “He would have said ‘I am quite chuffed about that’ and he would have been proud, his family always knew he was a genius, just took a long time for it to be recognised.”

Alex Wilson from the Public Information label, which has released Electronics Without Tears, said: “Aside from the staggering, pioneering technological skill in how Fred made his music, there’s a great diversity across his output that’s so attractive, so timeless.

“He could glide from jaunty, fresh instrumental pop to bleak, industrial future-scapes with ease - a note of deep melancholia here, a cut-splash of wild unease there.

“Fred represents that Great British idea of the eccentric boffin, toiling away in the shadows, without much recognition and reward.

"He is one of many and we should salute these people to the level at which their achievements merit.

"Thankfully Fred's achievements were manifold. At a recent screening of Ian's film Practical Electronica I had numerous friends and strangers coming up to me in shock saying how amazing Fred was and how stunned they were by what he made and invented."

Electronics Without Tears is out now