Otto, Andi - The STEIM Touch

The story of STEIM and the first sensor instruments in digital music. The STEIM foundation in Amsterdam was a music studio radically dedicated to the live, physical performance of electronic sound. From 1969 to 2021, the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music supported artists in building new instruments, insisting on tangible, hands-on engagements with electronic sound.This book provides a comprehensive overview of STEIM’s work, drawing on original interviews and extensive primary source research in the archive of its longtime artistic director, Michel Waisvisz (1949–2008). It traces the studio’s evolution from its roots in the anarchic, situationist spirit of 1960s Amsterdam to the famous Cracklebox and to a long line of pioneering developments in sensor-based instruments between 1984 and 2000.