Joris De Laet was always interested in the thought processes of the instrumental avant-garde. Because the possibilities of amplified sound intrigued him, he built his own electroacoustic instruments. In 1972, he studied composition at the University of Ghent with Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals, acoustics with engr. Walter Landrieu and Current Music Criticism with Dr. Herman Sabbe.

In 1973, during his studies in Ghent, he founded the Studio for Experimental Music in Antwerp (S.E.M.) and set up a private electronic music studio to independently realize his composition work and concert experiments.

Due to the originality and innovativeness of the electroacoustic music approach during the first half of the 1970s, Joris De Laet was regarded as a pioneer in live electronic music. In 1974, he formed the SEMensemble as a group that specialized in the performance of his live electroacoustic experiments. They performed in many European countries and in Canada.

In order to make electroacoustic and experimental music more widely known to the public, he co-founded New Music Concerts of Antwerp in 1980, with which he organized monthly concerts.

Joris De Laet taught electronic music composition at the University of Ribeirão Preto in São Paolo where his syllabus on electronic sound parameters has been translated into Portuguese. He is also a sound engineer for numerous classical music recordings for chamber ensemble, solo piano, piano, and voice and orchestra.

In 1978, he was invited by the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp to set up a professional recording studio and to teach electronic music composition. He taught this course until his retirement in 2012.