ABOUT THE FEEDBACK STUDIO VERLAG
After the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, three composers and collaborators of Karlheinz Stockhausen; Johannes Fritsch, Rolf Gehlhaar and David Johnson, founded the Feedback Studio in Cologne. Later, in 1971, Fritsch and Gehlhaar opened the Feedback Studio Verlag, the first German composer owned publishing house, which until 2009 published more than 300 compositions representing 20 composers. In 1975, Johannes Fritsch, who was professor of composition at the College of Music in Cologne (Musikhochschule Köln), became the sole director of the Feedback Studio and the Feedback Studio Verlag.
The Feedback Studio, which hosts the 'Hinterhausmusik' concert/lecture series, the recording studio and the Feedback Studio Verlag, occupied 2 floors of a 'hinterhaus' in the Cologne Belgian Quarter.
Works published by the Verlag include electronic, live electronic, computer music, orchestral and chamber music by Klarenz Barlow, Michael von Biel, Peter Eötvös, Silvio Foretic, Johannes Fritsch, Rolf Gehlhaar, David Johnson, Siegfried Koepf, Joachim Krist, Mesias Maiguashca, Michael Manion, John McGuire, Masahiro Miwa, Herbert A. Mitschke, Manfred Niehaus, Michael Ranta, Volker Staub and Caspar Johannes Walter.
Since 1971, the 'Hinterhausmusik' series has presented more than 150 events with works by composers of the Cologne and international avant-guarde, authentic music from Africa, China, Japan, India, etc..., as well as lectures and workshops, many in co-operation with the West German Radio.
The four World Music Congresses in 1979, '82, '84, and '86, in co-operation with the AG Musik in Ostwestfalen-Lippe, presented workshops, lectures, and concerts of music from non-European traditions, as well as some of the forgotten European musical traditions. These are documented in special editions of the Feedback Papers.
Feedback Papers is Feedback's series of writings on contemporary music, presenting analysis, project descriptions, the history of the Feedback Studio, as well as it's own view of the history of New Music.
Since May 2009 the Feedback Studio has only one little office room, from where Johannes Fritsch sells the rest of the scores by Michael von Biel, Michael Manion, Rolf Gelhaar, Masahiro Miwa and Fritsch himself. The works of all other Feedback Composers went back to the authors. All Feedback Papers and CDs are still available at the old adress ( fbstudio@web.de). With three collaborators Fritsch continues the digitalizing project of the Feedback archives.
