Whether techno or hip-hop – electronic music is nowadays the driving force of pop culture. We have almost forgotten that its origins lie in the WDR’s electronic studio, which made Cologne to one of the centres of the avant-garde during the post-war years. This is the story of how a room full of strange devices would become a cabinet of curiosities, the vibrations of which sent the whole world in a state of ecstasy. From the beginnings directly after the Second World War in Paris with Pierre Schaeffer’s ‘musique concrète’, the film focuses on Stockhausen and goes on to Kraftwerk, from Jean-Michel Jarre and the IRCAM studio right up to Detroit to the beginnings of techno.

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Recording: January 1 2021
Director: Thomas von Steinaecker
Duration: 00:51