Historically informed design of sound synthesis: A multidisciplinary, structured approach to the digitization and exploration of electronic music heritage

The multidisciplinary research project “Historically informed design of sound synthesis: A multidisciplinary, structured approach to the digitization and exploration of electronic music heritage” is a four-year project funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR, Vetenskapsrådet). As a collaboration between KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), KMH (Royal College of Music), and the Swedish Performing Arts Agency, the project aims to understand and reshape a series of early analog electronic instruments in the collection of the Swedish Performing Arts Agency and recreate them as digital instruments.

In my position as a researcher situated at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion, a part of the Swedish Performing Arts Agency) in Stockholm, I am mainly interested in the way musicians and institutions have interacted with these analog electronic instruments. On one hand this relates to the various and sometimes conflicting ideas of how these machines, synthesizers or analog electronic instruments should be operated. On the other hand, following the establishment and the institutional history of the Elektronmusikstudion, I ask: What happens when instruments used in an experimental style of music get archived and become cultural heritage? And how does this relate to the way in which musicians, technicians and archivists consider these early analog electronic instruments?

Mischa van Kan