Éliane Radigue, French composer and legend of musique concrète, dies at 94.

The Parisian artist reinvented the synthesizer through meditative, feedback-rich sonic explorations.

French composer and pioneer of musique concrète, Éliane Radigue, has died at the age of 94.

“It is with immense sadness that we learned of the passing of Éliane Radigue at 94,” posted INA GRM, the Paris-based experimental music center, on Instagram. “An important figure in musical creation has left us.”

Born in Paris in 1932, Radigue learned piano as a child, but it was upon hearing the electroacoustic compositions of the godfather of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer, on the radio in the early 1950s that something new revealed itself, defining the course of her own studies in sound. After encountering Schaeffer by chance in the French capital, she worked as the composer’s assistant.

“I was just cutting, splicing, and editing tapes,” she told The Guardian in a 2011 interview. “Of course, at that time the universe of electronic music was entirely male, but I was happy to do whatever I was asked. I was there to learn, and I learned by doing, like an apprentice. It wasn’t really electronic music that I was studying. The studio was against electronic music, in favor of ‘concrete’ music: a simple idea of taking real sounds and manipulating them by cutting, splicing, editing, slowing them down, and so on.”

In the early 1970s, Radigue was introduced to the synthesizer, and the instrument would go on to define the next 30 years of her work. “I simply went under its skin,” she said, using the ARP 2500 synthesizer to create much of her shifting, meditative music that incorporated feedback and tape hiss. Beyond France, she drew the attention of American composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who were captivated by her innovative approach to sound.

“What my generation did was not a revolution,” Reich said. “It was a restoration of harmony and rhythm in a completely new way, but it brought back those essential elements that people wanted, that people longed for — in a way they had never heard before.”

In her celebrated Occam Ocean series, Radigue collaborated with solo musicians and ensembles to create drone soundscapes inspired by the vastness of the sea, conceived as an antidote to the fast-paced modern world. “She forged her own path with unparalleled freedom and vision,” wrote INA GRM. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and collaborators.”

Source: The Guardian