Subscription was £20.00 per year and included monthly mail-outs with new music calendar, the six-monthly magazine Resonance, with free CD, and reduced admission to LMC events. Organised annual festival of experimental music and Resonacefm radio.
Started a record label, the first release being by Roger Smith.
Funding from the Arts Council ended from 31 March 2008 and the sole current manifestation - though in quite different form - is http://resonancefm.com.
Werkgroep Improviserende Muzikanten (WIM) means Association of Improvising Musicians. It was formed in 1972 when, as a result of financial discrimination (compared to visiting US musicians), a number of Belgian avant-garde musicians refused to play at the Middelheim Jazz Festival in Antwerp. As a result, the first Free Music festival was organised at an Antwerp pub, the 'Muze'. At that time WIM had 50-60 members with branches in Ghent and Brussels and, though the Association was open to more traditional musicians, they showed no inclination to join. A booklet was published, Plan voor jazz in Belgium, where the goals of the Association were listed as:
Concerts have been organised for children, pubications have been circulated, and recordings have been produced, most recently on the WIM label.
For around 10 years (1985 to 1995) WIM has received funding from the Belgian government via the Ministry of Culture. In 1991 this amounted to 1,100,000 B Francs (around £25,000) though in 1992 it was reduced by 30% and further reduced by a similar amount in 1995, both reductions made in the second half of the financial year. Representations were being made to attempt to transfer the funding onto a more stable base.
Shortly after the formation of WIM, an article was written for the magazine Musics: Leurentop, R. New from Belgium: WIM does not give up. Musics, p. 15, 31.