Thomas Ankersmit

At EMS 14-17 July 2025

Photo by Quentin Chevrier

Thomas Ankersmit is a musician based in Berlin, focussing on the Serge Modular analog synthesizer. Ankersmit’s music combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric textures with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.

Ankersmit’s music is released on the PAN, Touch and Shelter Press labels, and he’s worked closely with Phill Niblock, Kevin Drumm and Valerio Tricoli. His work has been presented at Reina Sofia, Museu Serralves, Hamburger Bahnhof, Stedelijk Museum, MoMA PS1 and festivals throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. 

Acutely visceral, brilliantly dynamic electroacoustic music … Play this loud and it starts to feel like a crack opening in reality.

– The Quietus

Some of the most challenging, absorbing, and masterfully executed sound art that I have ever heard.

– Brainwashed

Gorgeous and visceral … Supernovas of sound.

– The Wire

Thomas’s concert was spectacular, among the very best things I’ve ever heard done on a Serge synth. Best thing was, I didn’t hear a single bleep or bloop, or filter sweep, or driving sequencer beat. In fact, I heard nothing at all that I could tell was made using one of my synthesizers. That’s genius.

– Serge Tcherepnin, inventor of the Serge Modular