At the end of 1950s we started the first experiments - pehaps as a kind of entertainment - in Ilja Zeljenka's appartment near the Bratislava castle. We placed a microphone into a cooking pot and recorded various noises and dada-like screams with a simple commercial tape recorder.

Then a sound engineer with artistic ambitions appeared - Ivan Stadtrucker, head of the sound workplace at the TV studios - who, together with another sound engineer Jan Rucka, started to collaborate with music composers on various kinds of sound scores for film and television. The composers found support in persons of several ambitious film directors, who had noticed the presence of new sound medium in foreign films and looked for collaborators among the composers. Occasional visits by Jozef Patkowski from Warsaw and especially the news that there had been founded a studio for electronic music intensified our orientation and we started to evaluate the same possibility. But also unofficialy, the professional fundament for the creation of this strange kind of music had already existed at that time.

When our collegues in Czechia in cooperation with VňRT organized national seminar in Pilsen radio studio, they invited also a group of young composers from Bratislava. We presented the results of our work and they attracted that attention, that the organizers invited us to conduct the seminar for two groups of participants, most of them Czech composers of the older generation.

Meanwhile, also the radio directors implored new approach to the production of demanding radio programmes and looked for collaborators for this purpose.

At first, we were able to assert only a workplace named trick control room against the conservative radio management. At that time Peter Jan’k - fresh graduate from Czech Technical University, interested in electroacoustic music - appeared on the scene. He put together with the research department where Mikulas Zima woked and Peter Jan’k iniciated development of prototypes of various technical devices. Later he established contacts with VURT in Prague and obtained some special equipment for creative artistic purposes there. At that time, trick control room was already producing more electronic music than tricks (effects) for demanding radio programmes. When Jan Rucka died and Ivan Stadtrucker changed to another position, the sound workplace at the TV studios gradually ceased to exist. The main activities in the sphere of electroacoustic music moved over to the Radio after 1965 and finally, after 1966, the workplace was officially established as Experimental studio of Czechoslovak Radio in Bratislava. Music co

Even before the official establishment of the studio, numerous radio scores by J. Malovec, L. Kupkovic, P. Simai and P. Kolman had been produced. With some good will, we could consider them kind of etudes, that prepared the field for later production of autonomous electroacoustic pieces. The first autonomous electroacoustic composition - Orthogenesis by Jozef Malovec - was in fact originated before the establishment of the studio from the sound material for the record Anthology of world poetry (published by Supraphon). The author got so captivated by the material, that he decided to create an autonomous piece from it. As there was no stereo equipment at Bratislava Radio then, the piece was mixed onto a commercial (not professional) tape recorder. Another version was mixed at the Pilsen studio and actually after the success of the composition at the finals of the competition organized by the Dartmouth College Hanover (New Hampshire, USA), the final 4- and 2- channel versions were produced before the departure

With this event, our Experimental studio became known in international context among all persons who were interested in this kind of musical creation.

Later, other compositions by Jozef Malovec, Peter Kolman, Roman Berger, Ivan Hrusovskz and Ivan Par’k followed and also the first persons inteested from abroad applied.

It is necessary to say that the studio was originally equipped only with tape recorders and measuring devices, some generators and filters. Other devices provided by the research department or VURT - that at once had motivation for this kind of activities - were added later. A special tape recorder constructed by the research department equipped with multiple heads and continual speed regulation provided major help for us. Then, several generations of synthesizers emerged, from which the ARP has been used for certain purposes until today.

A few words about the techniques, for our younger collegues who are nowadays working mostly with digital equipment of computers, so that they can realize the work in a studio of that time: All sounds, even the tiniest ones, had to be recorded, cut out, pasted in correct order. When the result was not satisfactory, other sounds were recorded, cut out and pasted in order, eventually some decays were reversed, this sequence was then looped, filtered or processed by some other kind of device, then recorded again, cut out and pasted. The whole process often had to be repeated several times until the result was satisfactory and the sound was ready for recording on a multitrack. Before the multitrack era, the sounds were mixed from several tape recorders. Artificial reverberation was usually added during mix down. These techniques consumed lots of time, skill and creative energy. However, this work captivated each creative person, both composers and sound technicians. The rule in our studio from its very beginnig ha

Along with the synthesizers, the working style at the studio gradually changed, but many old devices were still used together with synthesizers.

The early 1970s were marked with new difficulties due to increase of ideological and cultural oppression. Once again, the authorities considered electroacoustic music as expression of West European decadence and lost the minimum support. The existence of the studio was in jeopardy. Then, an old principle proved valuable: we kept the studio alive by its focusing on utilitary radio production, radio drama and interesting folklore programmes. Several years later, autonomous electroacoustic production started to be produced again in an inconspicious way. It was a signal that the political and cultural situation was liberalized again, but only the final breakdown of the communist system in Europe opened the door into the world for the young generation of authors.

All the time new young people are joining both the technical staff and team of authors. Some of the sound engineers acquire musical education and become authors. At the beginning we believed, that all sounds must be created from electronic sources, but we soon found out that it was necessary to integrate also vocal and instrumental elements and various types of sounds and noises into this kind of music. Everything that sounds is worth electroacoustic processing. It is possible to achieve synthesis by means of mutual penetration of various kinds of music and sounds. We were right then, the contemporary trends in acousmatic compositions give us the truth.

The electronic, as it ifluenced all spheres of human activities, influenced the musical creation, as well. Today we know, that all those sluggards and ignorants, who considered the electroacoustic music a transitory phenomenon were wrong. Today we cannot estimate where the musical development would lead. Oliver Messien at a round table during his visit in Bratislava in 1987 said, that it appeared to him as if the electroacoustic creation was the only really "new" sphere within the music of 20th century.

At present, when several generations of machines and persons have changed during this short yet very dense history of electroacoustic music - observated from the point of view of single studio's production - we can all feel happy to be parts of a irretrievable historical process that has no analogy in the whole musical history, although the music itself reaches several millenaries back.

Jozef Malovec
November 1994