ELIANE RADIGUE
EPISODE 1
Since the 1960s Eliane Radigue (born Paris, 1932) has created a singular, powerful and individual body of work that explores slowly evolving states where musical change is perceived as environmental in scale, constant in evolution and virtually imperceptible in transformation. Often monumental in duration, her music communicates a sublime spiritual power, transporting the listener on a journey into the very heart of sound. A true original, Radigue has followed an artistic path unfettered through association to any schools and trends. She is now celebrated as a true innovator, pioneer and musical visionary. This episode of Sound Portraits Radio is hosted by Doron Sadja.
“Eliane Radigue’s music explores an expanded universe of which technology is a part. She has discovered things in electronic sound which powerfully affect our psyches.”
David Behrman
“I was just cutting, splicing and editing tape. Of course, at that time the universe of electronic music was totally male, but I was pleased to do anything they asked of me. I was there to learn, and I was learning by doing, like an apprentice. It wasn’t really electronic music I was studying. The studio was against electronic music in favour of ‘concrete’ music: a simple idea of taking real sounds and manipulating them by cutting, splicing, editing, slowing down and so on.”
Eliane Radigue
“It was in this way I think, that i discovered the pleasure of a work made with the tips of the toes, or rather the fingers.”
Eliane Radigue
“For the first three months in front of the synthesiser, I just ejected anything I didn’t want, and believe me there was quite a lot. All of what I would call the ‘big effects’. Then, finally, I found a tiny little field of sound that interested me – and I just dug under its skin.”
Eliane Radigue
“I could change the sound from the inside. To explain it visually, you could imagine a mountain turning into a cup, but so slowly from one state to another; it takes time by nature.”
Eliane Radigue
“I like this image of a mirror. From the very beginning I’ve known that the work is first of all a mirror of our mind: depending on our mood, our perception of the work is altered. That’s incredible. There was one point when I was completely rejecting everything and at the beginning I got angry, and I started to destroy things, which was silly. Because when I looked for some kind of shape it was there. Now, I’d rather go for a walk and let the work exist. And I know that it’s exactly the same for the listener, depending on their mood.”
Eliane Radigue
“All of these spaces are like conch shells in which the audience is placed – as if they are inside the body of an instrument. When I was young I used to sit under the piano whenever someone was playing so as to hear the full resonance of the music. What we’re trying to do is to surround the audience with a sound, so that when you turn your head you hear something different. The sound is everywhere. There is no stereo; the stereo is everywhere.”
Eliane Radigue
“…avoid directionality for the sound for the audience. No need to say “sit in the center, thats where the sound is best”. No, you can be in the smallest corner and hear the totality of what is going on. There is perhaps a slightly different story in each part of the room, but it is none the less a total story.”
Eliane Radigue
“…avoid directionality for the sound for the audience. No need to say “sit in the center, thats where the sound is best”. No, you can be in the smallest corner and hear the totality of what is going on. There is perhaps a slightly different story in each part of the room, but it is none the less a total story.”
Eliane Radigue
Sound Portraits is a series of lectures/listening sessions, curated by Doron Sadja, focusing on the work of iconic composers who have paved the way for contemporary electronic music. Started in 2015 as a live event at Spektrum in Berlin, the series quickly grew and exists now as both a live lecture series and a radio show on Cashmere Radio. After an introduction of each artist’s life and work, we listen to a selection of excerpts and complete works from the artist’s repertoire. Besides providing an opportunity to introduce these seminal artists to a new audience, the Sound Portraits series also offers an open forum to engage in group listening in a quiet atmosphere.
Doron Sadja is an American artist, composer, and curator whose work explores modes of perception and the experience of sound, light, and space. Find out more at www.doron.sadja.com
Contact us at info@soundportraits.info