Electronic music – a piece of history

70 years ago, the Soviet Lev Thérémin's electronic music instrument amazed the world by creating an electronically-based sound world.

It took until the early 1960s before Finnish electronic music took its first serious steps along the path trodden by Thérémin. This more or less unknown phase in the history of Finnish media hype is the theme of Off-On, written and edited by musician–producer Petri Kuljuntausta. The book deals with the development of Finnish electro-acoustic music by focusing on events and writings up to the mid-1960s. Off-On paints a picture of what happened and when, and who and what influenced the breakthrough of electronic music in Finland. The reader can follow the way that opinions have changed over the years and which arguments have been used to praise or criticise electronic music. The story is brought to life by interviews in which the composers themselves talk about the events around the turn of the 1960s, their work and experiments with electronic sound. The book is complemented by a CD presenting central works and artists from that period.

Kiasma is the joint publisher of the volume. The sound works and part of the textual material are also included in the Soundbox3 project to be found on the Museum's web site.

OFF-ON – Charting the early days of Finnish electro-acoustic music (in finnish) forthcoming in the spring of 2001