In the aftermath of Stalinism, composers and artists in Eastern Europe were given new opportunities to experiment. New recording studios equipped with magnetic tape recorders and later, synthesisers were established, first in Warsaw in 1957 and then throughout Eastern Europe. New and often challenging forms of music were produced in these laboratories of sound.

The connections between the visual arts and experimental music were closer in the 1960s than perhaps any time before or since. Sound and image combined in artists' films, 'happenings' and sounding installations. Experimental forms of notation were also created to stimulate uninhibitd musical expression.

The early happenings and actions of the 1960s were associated with intellectual freedom and reform. The exhilaration of experimentation declined during the decade and in the 1970s new critical forms of art emerged which associated sound with surveillance and censorship.

This book accompanying an exhibition at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź explores both the optimism and the anxiety that was to be found in the experimental zone of art and music.

Artists: Jaroslav Anděl | Daniel Bird | Bolek Błaszczyk | Jozef Cseres | Chris Cutler | Branko Dimitrijević | Dobrila Denegri | Dunja Donassy | Andrzej Dłużniewski | Szábolcs Esztényi | Darko Fritz | Milan Grygar | Marcin Giżycki | Jola Gola | Igor Hansen | Francisco Infante | Zoltán Jeney | Tomasz Jeziorowski | Júlia Klaniczay | Teresa Kelm | Krzysztof Knittel | Marie Knížáková | Milan Knížák | Petr Kofroň | Natalia Kolodzei | Vitaly Komar | Grzegorz Kowalski | Zygmunt Krauze | Katarzyna Krysiak | Boris Kršňák | Ľudovít Kupovič | Zofia Kulik | Andres Kurg | Milo Kurtis | Alexandra Kusá | Katalin Ladik | Michał Libera | Jacek Malicki | Dorá Maurer | Kazik Mazan | Michał Mendyk | Maria Mileeva | Alex Mlynarcik | Viera Mecková | Andrei Monastyrsky | Agnieszka Morawińska | Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius | Andrija Mutnjaković | Lev Nussberg | rodzina Pawłowskich / Pawłowski family | Piotr Piotrowski | Marek Pokorný | Paweł Polit | Łukasz Ronduda | Andrzej Rosołowicz | Vladan Radovanović | Józef Robakowski | Eugeniusz Rudnik | Josef Schreiner | Jane Sharp | Maryla Sitkowska | Martin Smolka | Zdeněk Sklenář | Lech Stangret | Stanisław K. Stopczyk | Marinko Sudac | Masha Sumnina | Miško Šuvaković | Jacek Szerszenowicz | Krzysztof Szlifirski | John Tilbury | Margareta Tillberg | Markéta Tintěrová | Grzegorz Tyszkiewicz | Jiří Valoch | Irina Vanechkina | Jelena Vukovic | Ewa Witkowska | Krzysztof Wodiczko