I grew up on '60s and '70s WDR electronic music; it was super important for me in my teens, not only musically, but also as a gateway to my interest in computers, signal processing and European history.<p>They mention in the article a bit about the political push against experimental music in the 1930s, but it's interesting to consider that the re-surfacing of such music was also very political: the West were very happy to broadcast free and progressive music across the wall. I definitely have a feeling that experimental music has become a lot more niche since relations softened, the extra funding and promotion has dried up a bit, and now the world of that music has moved almost entirely to the back rooms of various universities.
Publicly funded radio and TV in Germany was a mishmash of entertainment, education, news reporting but also music production. Entire symphony orchestras and Jazz bands were part of the state-run stations. Private broadcasting didn't exist, maybe wasn't allowed then.<p>Not surprised to hear about electronic music being funded as well, the public networks had a reputation of being somewhat elitist and high brow.
I admire two things here: the hardware aesthetic, which is just beautiful, and the pioneering spirit, which is extremely daring.<p>That said, I've got a bone to pick with the standard narratives in electronic music history. They dwell on the origins like here but gloss over what I believe to be a cambrian Explosion brought about by DAWs/plugins from the 2000s. I get that it's 'history,' but this explosion deserves far more attention and analysis.
The more recent news in October on the studio since this page was produced is the city of Cologne continues to take an interest in preservation going as far to take ownership and plan to promote and use the space for education and culture centre.<p><a href="https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presseservice/studio-fuer-elektronische-musik-des-wdr-wechselt-die-eigentuemerin" rel="nofollow">https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presseserv...</a>
I once visited the remains of the studio in that cellar in Köln-Ossendorf as part of an excursion at university. I felt it was quite sad how it was just parked there, you wouldn't have assumed its historical importance.
The Herbert Weimart (inventor of the first vocoder?) referred to in this article. It immediately makes me think of the pioneering electronic music artist Herbert. I bet it isn't coincidence.
In the immortal words of Hugh Greene, responsible for WDR’s predecessor organisation NWDR until three years before the founding of the Electronic Music studio here:<p>> We are going to use this organisation to change the way the rest of the country thinks. We want them to see stuff they don’t like. We don’t really care if they complain.<p>Granted, it’s what he said about the BBC, but he did it in Germany too, to a level of success that deserves greater recognition.