[S07E02] May 2025 - Roy Palmer




In this May 2025 edition of the Theremin 30 Podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from Australia, Iceland, Finland, and England. Rick's interview guest is Roy Palmer, one of the organizers of the 2025 Hands Off Theremin Festival.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA & NEWS LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2025 Rick Reid 


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TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:00  
Rick, this is Theremin 30 - Thirty minutes of Theremin music, news, events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now. Here's your host, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:18  
hello there. Welcome to the May 2025, edition of the theremin 30 podcast this month. I've got Theremin music from Australia, Iceland, Finland and England. And my interview guest is Roy Palmer. He'll be telling us all about Hands off 2025, a weekend of Theremin events set for this September in the East Midlands region of England. We'll also take a look at the theremin 30 calendar and more.

Let's get right to it with a classical Theremin performance from Australian thereminist Gary P Hayes, followed by a track from the latest album by Hekla. I'll have more details for You on the other side.

We started the show with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as performed by Sydney Australia recording artist Gary P Hayes from his new album The classical Theremin Two. This 17 track collection is available now on band camp. After that, I played a track called Grammin from the Turnar album by Icelandic recording artist Hekla. Obviously, I don't speak Icelandic. According to Google Translate, the track is called The Gray in English, and the album title translates as Towers. You can order the album on vinyl LP or purchase a download on Bandcamp. Links for both artists are in this month's show notes at theremin30.com.

It's time now for a look at the theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. Friday, May 23 is the anniversary of the birth of Dr Robert Moog, also this weekend, Masami Takeuchi leads at their mid workshop in Hamamatsu city, Japan. Also in Japan, progressive rock artist Andmo performs at Raw Tracks in the Osaka area. And Thorwald Jorgenson has a classical concert in the Netherlands. On June 7 the divine hand ensemble holds its annual concert among the crypts in the Philadelphia area. And on June 28 Ernesto Mendoza performs at the Antique Toy Museum in Mexico City. I also want to share a couple of news items. Gaudi Labs has announced a new version of the open Theremin four that has built in MIDI jacks for connecting to other instruments. I have a link to details in this month's show notes, and Los Angeles based thereminist Randy George is featured in the score of the new Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. It opens in the USA on May 23 for other countries, check their local movie listings. 

Coming up in a few minutes. I'll visit with Roy Palmer about the 2025 Hands Off festival, set for this fall in the East Midlands of England. But first, I've got a recent recording from Finland composer Kepa Lehtinen called Dark Romance. It's part of a four track EP called Dark that you can listen to on Spotify, and you can see the official music video for This track on the theremin 30 playlist on YouTube. 

My interview guest this month is Roy Palmer. He lives in Nottingham, England, where he moderates the Theremini People group on Facebook. Roy is also part of a group of volunteers planning the 2025 Hands Off Festival. I spoke with Roy a couple of weeks ago to find out about plans for the event. Roy, thank you for being back on Theremin 30. Thank you for inviting me back a couple years ago. You were on the show talking about your Theremini user group. This time, we're going to talk about something that's not specific to the Theremini. It's the Hands Off 2025, event that you're planning.

Roy Palmer  16:06  
That's right, yes, put it in a nutshell as possible, for some time, I've had this dream. Call it a nightmare, of having a theremin event in my hometown. Two reasons, love the theremin. Second reason, I'm lazy and I don't want to travel too far. Then also what happened was a group of us coming out of the Copenhagen event said it wouldn't be good to do a UK based Theremin event. And then I came across a venue in my locality that looked ideal to do this sort of event in. And it grew from there, really, and then everything suddenly became, sort of falling into place. The venue was available, the people were available, and the main person that was available for the weekend I'd chosen was, of course, Lydia Kavina, who has rubber stamped this, mainly also because the the title Hands Off Festival began many years ago. The use of that term started, I think it was back in 2007 when there was a Hands Off Festival in Scarborough in the UK, which I believe you attended. 

Rick Reid  17:13  
Well, I was at the one in Scarborough in 2011. I'm not sure if that's where the 2007 one was or not. I wasn't involved in the community back then. Yours is going to be in Nottingham, is that right? 

Roy Palmer  17:26  
Yeah. Nottingham is where I live and breathe, and it's in a lovely Anglican church called St Paul's, which is in Daybreak, which is only a few miles from the city center. Great access for the UK and for Europe. And we have our own airport, and then links from the airport into the city center, great bus and travel networks. The Church has made itself available for two days, so the plan is to have the first day for intermediate and advanced players, where we will run a variety of workshops, ranging from talking about MIDI, talking about Theremin in Asian music, something called thereoki, which is where we get a list of tracks and people play. Because the main thing we Theremin players like to do is meet other players and also play together and share our music and our ideas, so that we discussion groups and so on. On the evening or the Friday we'll have a social event, because, of course, we all like to eat and have perhaps a beer or two. And then the Saturday morning, there will be two public sessions, one for kids, one for grown ups, so that members of the public get a chance to have a go themselves. You know, one of the great things with the theremin is, once you have a go yourself, it kind of becomes captivating, and you get hooked on it. But unfortunately, there's not the opportunity to do that, and that's what we've created here. So there's two workshops, a junior and an adult.

Rick Reid  18:56  
 And this is in September? I don't know if we mentioned the date. 

Roy Palmer  18:58  
The dates are the 19th and the 20th of September this year, we'll be running from 10 till five each day, but the second day so we have the the open workshops in the morning for children and for adults, then in the afternoon. Well, we're going to finish with a concert on the evening of the Saturday the 20th, from seven till 930 Lydia will be our main star, but there will also feature an ensemble piece. So throughout the weekend, those of who are there will be learning an ensemble piece to play as part of a public concert. There will also be a really great chap that I've met a year or so ago called Peter Chaloner, who is an ambient electronic music player with synths and so on. Not a thereminist, not a thereminist, but he and I become good friends, and we're going to start working on a piece together for the event. Because, of course, Lydia has sent out a few challenges as she does, one of which. Was to myself to come up with something. Another one was with Peter. I introduced her to Peter because I met Peter at an electronic music festival which featured Thorsten Quaeschning from Tangerine Dream. We shared the same interesting music. I'm a big fan of electronic music, and so we sort of developed this friendship and this talk about doing something together. Then I mentioned his name to Lydia, and she said, Oh, would he like to work at the concert and we can do something? And I said, Well, ask him. And so they've now got their heads together and come up with something they're going to work on then. And this has evolved over the last few months. Lydia said, Is there a church organist? And I said, Well, I believe so. Well, would he like to partake as well, and I can play something with him. And so it's become not just Lydia on our own, but Lydia with Peter myself as kind of MC for the evening, the church organ, the piece I'm working on. My late father was a politician in Nottingham, but also worked in the local coal mines, which were all closed down many years ago. And the coal mining he worked at is only a few miles from Arnold, where we're daybrook St Paul's church. So I'm working on a piece which is going to be a tribute to my father. We use some audio clips I managed to record in an interview I filmed with him many years ago, one of the things he said in the interview was, I never wanted to be a minor. I hated the thought of going underground and being a minor. And at the time, he was looking for work. That was the only work available, and so at the tender age of 15, he went down the mines, finished when he was 60. But those was a strong campaigner for health and safety within the coal mining industry. The piece I'm working on will be a tribute to him. Will be a mix of my own, improvised Theremin playing some ambient electronics, hopefully something with Peter, also a lady that I've met recently who's a great vocalist, who will partly sing. I'm not sure if you would be familiar, or your listeners would be familiar with the hymn Jerusalem. 

Rick Reid  22:05  
Oh, yeah, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer did that one. Of course, we know that one.

Roy Palmer  22:10  
Of course, yeah, opening track from Brain Salad Surgery. So I'm working on this piece at the moment. It may, it may fall apart at the first hurdle, but I've done a demo already which Lydia was quite enthralled with, and a few other people, because, like, you know, music, we talk often talk about music and the technicalities and the complexities of music, but it also has that emotional capacity and side to it, and this is very much from my heart and from My love for my father and what he stood for, and I'm hoping it will all work on the night. 

Rick Reid  22:47  
So a couple more questions about this event. This is not a closed off event where only a few people can participate, like we did in Denmark, right? This is more open to the public. 

Roy Palmer  22:58  
It's almost got two parts. There is intermediate and advanced because of the theremin's nature of not being able to play too many Theremin together in one room, we've had to limit it to 20 people physically because of the size and the space available to separate them, the public part, which is open to anyone, will also be limited to 20 but only because of the physicality and what we don't want. You know, if we, if we said, oh, it's open to 30, 40, or 50, would not everybody would get a chance to have a go. But what we're also planning to do off the back of this event, we want to build on opportunities for newcomers to try the theremin. So there is a small group of us that have been discussing this possibility and are working towards having regular Theremin workshops and events around the UK that are in person. You know, we've had enough of the online environment. You know, we've survived COVID And we've survived the online community, but we've got to that point, at least COVID, where you want to meet people.

Rick Reid  24:01  
Well, it sounds like a great event. I went to the, as I mentioned, the hands off in 2011 in Scarborough, and I've still kept in touch with most of the people I met there. Many of them have been on the podcast. So it's a, you know, if anybody has the ability and the time to make it to Nottingham in September for this event. I really recommend it. It's sounds like it's going to be a great event. I wish I could be there.

Roy Palmer  24:25  
It's Hands Off Festival 2025, Saint Paul's church in Daybrook, which is on the outskirts of Nottingham. It is September the 19th and 20th, which are the workshop days. And then on the evening of the 20th, an amazing concert of electronic music and Theremin music.

Rick Reid  24:44  
if you'd like to attend the hands off concert, there is a link to tickets on this month's show notes at Theremin30.com. I'll also add a link to workshop registration as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, I'll post an email address where you can contact event organizers directly.

With the time remaining in the show. Here's an electronic improv featuring Roy Palmer on Theremini and Peter Challoner on synthesizers. This is called Ambient Mixology 3.

That was Ambient Mixology 3. It began as a live concert performance by Peter Challoner, then Roy Palmer added a layer of Theremini sounds in the studio. Both Peter and Roy will be part of the hands off Festival in September. Tthanks to them, as well as Gary P Hayes, Hekla and Kepa Lehtinen for sharing their music this month. Please support these artists any way you can. And a big thanks goes to the listeners who support this show with small one time or monthly donations or by purchasing items from the merch store and the pro shop on the theremin 30 website. Until next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid, and I'll see you again somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:51  
You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.

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