Full text

The Cologne WDR studio is rightfully considered the 'Mother of all studios.' Its philosophy was strict: a rejection of microphones and recordings of the real world (in opposition to the Paris school). Music had to be synthesized from scratch, using pure sine waves and noise.

The creation process was a laborious engineering feat. For example, the studio had no digital effects — to create an echo, sound was played through speakers in an empty 'echo chamber' (a concrete room) and recorded back onto tape. The studio became home to Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Cage, and in the 70s, it was upgraded with the legendary custom synthesizer, the EMS Synthi 100.