EMS Synthi A and VCS3 in concert. 1970’s.

” In 1974 Belgian composer Peter Beyls was not only a technician at the STEIM-studio in Amsterdam but also a teacher at the Vrije Akademie Psychopolis at Den Haag. Hero Wouters was a movie-making “paticipant” (a sixties-word for student) at the Academy, picking up some easy money as a technical assistant in the electronic-and-film-music-studio. They decided to join forces and gave in 1974 and 1975 two series of concerts, “Transformation” and “In Concert”, mixed-media performances consisting of live electronic music, tapes, films and slides.

One of these events (Studio Skoop, Gent, rehearsal at the IPEM, november 29 and 30 1974) was filmed by Psychopolis-student Jacques Tooten, and the material was edited by Hero Wouters in the same year. Projected during this concert were his movies “A Boy’s Ballad (Hero Wouters Movie nr 32), “On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection” (HWM 64), “De Zogenaamde Zeetrein” (HWM 65) and “Prints” (HWM 25), fragments of which can be seen in this reportage.

Interesting are the use of two EMS VCS3’s, communicating through a very long tape-delay-loop, and a platform built by Beyls to control (with hands and feet) his “kraakdoos” (a famous STEIM-synth design).

Music: “Dialoog voor twee Synthesizers & Tape-transport” opus 103 (Beyls / Wouters) and two Peter Beyls-pieces for VCS3, tapes and kraakdoos. HWM nr 66.”