After his studies at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven and at the conservatories of Ghent and Antwerp, Frans Geysen (°1936) took part in the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt and participated in various festivals for contemporary music throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Geysen taught at the Lemmens Institute from 1962 to 1999 and at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels from 1975 to 1997. Starting in 1972, his essays, analyses, and reviews of scores, recordings and books related to contemporary music appeared in such periodicals as Adem, Restant, Gamma, Mozaïek and Muziekkrant.

Geysen began his activities as a composer in 1958. His early compositions were mainly choral works in a post-expressionist style. In 1967, independently from the American minimalists, he evolved towards a canonic-repetitive style that differs from minimalism.