ABSTRACT
The history of electronic music in Central America, South America, and Cuba has its origins in the earliest days of tape music. The exploratory works from these regions suffered for many years from little documentation and a lack of institutional support for the preservation of recordings. Argentinian Mauricio Kagel and Mario Davidovsky are two of the best known. The early days of Latin American electronic music were marked by two general trends regarding access and practice. Numerous composers were studying music and composition abroad and had the opportunity to access electronic music facilities in their host cities, specifically New York, Cologne, Milan, and Paris. During the formative years of electronic music development in the 1950s, there was a tendency for works from all over the world to share a common vocabulary of sound and techniques. Latin American culture itself is a blend of many influences with strong European and African ties infused by the art and music of indigenous traditions.
