We’ve recently begun developing a new electronic music space in Truro.
The space is called Laboratory for Electronic Music (LEM).
For over a decade, through our programmes, workshops and lectures, we’ve talked about experimentation and discovery as being just as important as musical theory: the idea that access to instruments, curiosity and calm environments can open entirely new ways of working with sound.
We’ve often returned to the ideas behind places like the San Francisco Tape Music Center, BBC Radiophonic Workshop and GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) — environments where exploration was the basis of the creative process.
At the same time, Cornwall has its own rich history of innovation and experimentation, from space communications to music and art. Being geographically distant from major urban centres has often led to bold and independent ways of thinking and working.
Over the last few years, we’ve also seen electronic music activity in Cornwall grow significantly, with musicians, venues and self-organising communities increasingly connecting around live performance, listening and experimentation. Through our own projects and collaborations, we’ve been lucky to be part of that.
LEM is an attempt to build a space around those ideas here in Cornwall: somewhere both beginner-friendly and resource deep, where people can explore electronic music through access to instruments, community and shared learning opportunities.
Cornwall Youth Noise Orchestra will also now be connected to the space — giving the project an ongoing base for workshops, smaller group activity and instrument access between larger sessions at partner spaces.
Alongside the electronic music lessons already running in Falmouth, lessons and exploratory sessions in Truro will begin shortly. The space will function as somewhere to learn, explore and create – a calm environment in which to spend time with the equipment, whether you’re curious about making beats or composing and recording a new quadraphonic work.
The room is centred around modular synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, cassette recorders and sequencing systems — instruments designed to be explored through listening, experimentation and tactility. We also plan to expand the room with reel-to-reel tape machines, spectrum analysers, and other electroacoustic and studio-laboratory equipment.
On any given evening, one table might be building slow evolving sequences from pinged filters while another feeds contact microphone recordings through cassette loops spliced with fragments of Mabe Ladies Choir recordings.
These instruments tend to reward curiosity. The same small setup can lead towards completely different results depending on who is using it, and we look forward to hearing the diversity of music that comes out of people using the space.
That sense of openness is something we’re hoping to develop further in Truro: a place where complete beginners, curious listeners and experienced musicians can all approach the same instruments from different directions.
We plan to complete our recording setup for booking too – but for now, the priority is simply to begin opening the space to the community.
LEM is intentionally beginning on a small scale. The current space has come about through a rare and generous opportunity to establish a permanent base for the project for the first time — something that simply wouldn’t otherwise have been possible at this stage.
While the space allows us to bring together instruments, lessons, workshops and smaller group activity connected to our wider programmes, we also recognise its limitations, including accessibility constraints. Longer term, we hope this will become the foundation for a larger and access-first electronic music facility in Cornwall, which has always been our vision.
If you’ve been curious about electronic music for years, or already make music and want access to a different kind of environment, we’d love to hear from you.
If you’d like to enquire about early sessions in Truro, please get in touch:
matt@moogiewonderland.co.uk
You can also read more about the lessons here:
