Electronic Music Studios in Musical, Commercial and International Perspective

My project is a critical investigation into the history of Electronic Music Studios, a London-based studio and electronic instrument company founded in 1969. EMS was set up during a period of significant activity in electronic composition, intermedia art and the development of music technology. It was unique in being both a working studio in which composers, including Harrison Birtwistle and Hans Werner Henze, could realise new music, and a manufacturer of commercial synthesisers. During the early 1970s, the hybrid digital/analogue system developed at EMS was among the most advanced of its time, making the studio an important location in the development of computer music. Drawing on archival research, oral history practice and theoretical readings from the philosophy of technology, my account of EMS situates it in wider musical, cultural, media historical and technological contexts, as well as commenting on its relevance in the present day through synthesizer reconstruction and restoration projects.