About

Since 1964, EMS, Elektronmusikstudion, formerly known as Electroacoustic Music in Sweden, prior to that known as Elektronmusikstudion, is the Swedish national centre for electronic music and sound art.

Short film from the times when EMS was situated on Kungsgatan 8 in Stockholm, 1974. It is one of the rare photographic documents available from that time.

EMS library catalogue
EMS archive inventory

EMS has a unique collection of books on electroacoustic music and sound art. The library and archives are available for research by appointment. We will be happy to reply to any e-mail requests.

The library collection includes books and periodicals on electroacoustic music, sound art, text-sound, concrete poetry, computer music and sound synthesis, soundscape and acoustic ecology, contemporary music, audio technology, acoustics etc. We also have hundreds of electroacoustic music and sound art CDs as well as the IDEAMA archives, an international documentation of electroacoustic music covering 1929-1971, searchable in a database with audio files.

Parts of the collection may be found in the EMS library catalogue and on Librarything (books only). The library catalogue contains all our books (which Librarything doesn't), and many of our CDs and DVDs. New acquisitions are reported in the librarian’s blog.

The tape archives

EMS's tape archives contain thousands of recordings of music and sound art created at EMS and other studios. In collaboration with KB/AVM (the department of audiovisual media at Kungliga Biblioteket, the National Library of Sweden), EMS runs a digitisation project aiming to make all recordings available to the public. There are already a few items available in the Swedish Media Database, and it is possible to listen to the sound files at Kungliga Biblioteket/AVM.

There is also a searchable database with sound files available at EMS, and in addition, one can search EMS's tape archives in the DISMARC portal, although it is not possible to listen to the recordings online.

The document archives

The document archives contain source material about EMS and Swedish electroacoustic music, such as correspondence, technical documentation, administrative documents, programme notes and photographs. Some older documents have been digitised. The archives have been donated to Musik- och teaterbiblioteket (The Music and Theatre Library of Sweden), and an inventory is available.

More information on Swedish archives related to electroacoustic music can be found on the librarian's blog.

EMS's librarian also maintains a list of Swedish record labels for electronic and experimental music, a list of online tutorials, and a meta-bibliography.

During 2011, EMS is collaborating with the following organizations:

Audiorama
Kulturkontakt Nord
Södra Teatern
Norbergfestival
Stiftelsen framtidens kultur
Dansens Hus

EMS is located at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm. Münchenbryggeriet is a large brick building that used to be an old brewery.

If you travel by subway, the nearest station is Mariatorget, the "Torkel Knutssonsgatan" exit. Walk to the right on Torkel Knutssonsgatan, after a few hundred meters, go through a porch, cross a parking lot and make your way down to the next level of the parking lot. EMS is the to the left at Söder Mälarstrand.

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