The group was founded in 1981 in a small 8-track studio known as "Originalton West," run by Matthias Becker in the basement of the Cologne music store Hört-Hört.

[1] E.M.A.K.’s influences include Kraftwerk, Neu!, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Neue Musik and musique concrète,[1] as well as Pink Floyd and the White Noise project associated with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

These included analogue synthesizers such as a Mini-Moog and a Synthanorma Sequencer (a German sequencer built by Hajo Wiechers of Matthen & Wiechers/ Bonn similar to the sequencer of the large Moog system), a Fender Rhodes piano (customized by Stühlen with external treatments such as distortion, echo chambers, and improvised effects), and a Roland TR-808 drum machine.

2 were released pre-sampler and pre-midi and so took a manual tape-based approach to looping and musique concrète parts.

's music was influenced by older German electronic music, from that of Karlheinz Stockhausen to Can, both based in or near Cologne, but was also deliberately different, the band's name even cocking a deliberate snook at Stockhausen's self-appropriation of elektronische Musik.

[2] Becker also felt little connection with Neue Deutsche Welle bands such as Nena or D.A.F., although he admired the production work of the Cologne-based Conny Plank for some of these.

were part of the club scene in Cologne,[2] and their own music often involved atmospheric extended pulsating rhythms.

[2] In 1987 Becker began writing a column for a German music magazine called “Synthesizer von Gestern”.

These albums collected compositions for various specific synthesizers, each piece produced using only one particular synth.