Eliane Radigue

I typically go for vinyl if the option exists, but yeah, it may not be the best fit with a sound as simple and pure as eliane's. haven't listened yet but I have the same reservations.

those clips sounds excellent though!

heh. they SOUND excellent that is.

listened to jouet electronique yesterday afternoon. wonderful. especially love the subtle, rhythmic feedback modulation during the side a coda.

and I'm not sure if it was just my copy, but it did seem like a bit of a noisy pressing as well. didn't distract me much but ymmv.

well, it appears I'm not the only one with this problem. from a review on the discogs page:

Massive amount of surface noise on brand new LP. Persisting after 2 professional vacuum cleaning...Do record plants ever make test pressings anymore before releasing albums?

a bit annoying for a pricey lp.

http://www.soundandmusic.org/projects/triptych-music-eliane-radigue

Interview with Eliane Radigue (by Paul Schütze) in the new issue of Frieze:

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/surround-sound/

That picture of her with the seashell.

Must admit I was getting to be wary of whether I was personally going to listen to another early archival release after 'Tryptich' & 'Vice-Versa', but I've been listening to 'Transamorem – Transmortem' a lot the last six weeks. Very intense & piercing even for her, but very very focused. About half an hour in, when the high tone occasionally does that little quiver, it feels like a physical push

Frieze is kicking ass with the electronic music coverage--they have The Wire beat for sure

er, not that I'm biased, or anything

oh yeah? what else have they published lately?

besides that very fine schnitzler article, that is. :-)

listening to 'trilogie de la mort' right now because of this thread ((((d-_-b))))

what else have they published lately?

here's a max mathews interview i did: http://blog.frieze.com/max-mathews/

i've written many other pieces for them, but they're not all available online--you have to buy the magazine. i have three big articles on the way, all dealing with electronic music, but i have a hand injury which is slowing me down a bit

but anyway, back to eliane radigue: my friend keith is hanging out with eliane in paris at this very moment

nice one. thanks for heads up on the article.

and good for Frieze, because i've found the art world to generally have shockingly unsophisticated and horrible taste in music (all those parties with camp-retro-irony djs who play 80s hits and mainstream disco)

yeah, thanks!

just listened to transamorem - transmortem and...

About half an hour in, when the
high tone occasionally does that little quiver, it feels like a physical push

...yes!

loved this bit from that interview:

I ’ve been working alone
for so much of my life. My only assistant
has been my cat .
I would always know something was wrong
when she made a face , but when she was
very quiet I’d just carry on .

my cats approved of transamorem btw

reissue of geelriandre / arthesis on senufo editions is out.

'arthesis' sounding particularly lovely to me right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwNIJa6Dexs

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/565809-eliane-radigue-feedback-works-1969-1970

frustrating to have this be another vinyl-only release when even the boomkat samples have crinkly vinyl noise, even though the music still sounds great under the pops. they've got to put out a CD of this + jouet electronique.

http://www.electrocd.com/en/cat/oral_57/
https://soundcloud.com/experimedia/eliane-radigue-psi-847-album?in=experimedia/sets/exp-new-march-14-2013

“The performance of Ψ 847 is about to begin. Once again, Radigue has employed one of her favoured sound dissemination tricks: directing the banks of loudspeakers not toward the audience, but toward the building… The soundboard is at the rear of the house, and Marchetti will be playing the tapes from there. Radigue is in a seat, like any other audience member. There will be nothing to see, no one on stage, no visual distractions. But what happens when you listen to this music? What sensations, feelings or thoughts emerge? Obviously, any drone-based music generates, first of all, a physical experience… You must give in, abandon yourself, forget about trying to figure out whether three minutes or an hour have elapsed. This is… truly an experience of slowness. A rare moment for which you must prepare, and be in the right condition (no need to meditate, or try to achieve a trance state, either: a little concentration will suffice!)… Once you’ve accepted the loss of physical bearings, you can then attempt to grasp Radigue’s compositional talent: locating motifs that modulate and transform at varying intervals; appreciating the evolution, the appearance of a new movement, or, as in the case of Ψ 847, the insensible dissolution of the music.” —Thibaut De Ruyter, Berlin (Germany), 2012

The Wire, Issue 180, February 1999
Eliane Radigue: Death Becomes Her (extracts) By Julian Cowley

During the 1950s, Radigue drew her first substantial nourishment as a composer from the innovations of musique concrete. Previously, she had played the twelve tone game, but found it unfulfilling. Then, while working as Pierre Henry's assistant, she chanced upon electronic feedback effects. "I was absolutely fascinated," Radigue remarks in a telephone interview, "not only by the sounds but by their behavior. With the tape recorders of that period, a little defect could bring interesting results. I found this garbage of sounds very expressive."

... Radigue embarked on her own course, turning her attention to synthesizers which allowed easier building of the sounds she required. An ARP analog synthesizer has remained her chosen means to make music, although for 25 years her style has been Minimalist. PSI 847 was her breakthrough piece - for the first time her musical conception was closely matched in execution over 80 minutes of sustained, gentle sound.
"The duration was just a matter of the necessary time I had to go through in order to reach what was my real goal," she explains, "which is still my goal, a very slow changing process within the sound itself. Something which is not external to the sound." She feels that the nature of her chosen synthesizer's modular system grants her "access within the flesh of the sounds".

played each disc once, right out of the mailer about three weeks ago. the first disc, the concert recording, is remarkable. incredibly high fidelity for a room recording. it's only at the first cough, about 20 minutes in, that you get a sense of the room's huge dimensions, and that it dawns on you that there are hundreds of people in that room silently listening to the piece.

the second disc is the direct transfer of the tape; the first disc was so intense that I don't think I gave it as much of a chance. sometime soon.

ordered this today - can't wait to listen!

have only had a chance to listen to the first disc so far but I'm already thinking that this is going to end up as one of my favorites in her catalog. "intense" is definitely a good way to put it - the piece really becomes very immersive as it pares down, sounds begin to overlap, and everything sssssssstretches out.

anyone ever hear feedback works 1969 - 1970 btw? too rich for my blood.

This thread is making me wish I had an extra $300

>feedback works 1969 - 1970

it's good, it's tape-saturated & noisy. not meditative, very full on. it's got a mixed version of 'Vice Versa' (as much as I enjoy the archival CD presentations that simply give you separate tracks of each ingredient on different discs so you can mix them yourselves, I also enjoy hearing examples of realized performances)

I've read a review or two online complaining of Radigue fatigue after the last few years of never-before-released early pieces, but yes I do get the impression everything was sort of building towards a good edition of 'Psi 847' coming out. The later pieces have soothing moments, this one is just intense raw consciousness

personally I can't really complain about the deluge since I haven't heard anything I'd consider a dud yet. but 847 seems special.

and thanks for the info on feedback works. you've definitely piqued my curiosity.

Naldjorlak I, II, III, anyone?

It's fantastic. Radigue really knows how to write in her own voice for acoustic instruments now.

The first disc is still Charles Curtis, doing a new performance of Naldjorlak I, which came out on the same label a few years ago; still the same structure but a very different piece now that he's been touring with it for a few years. I saw him play it in SF about two years ago at The Lab; he played it unamplified in a mid-sized room, and encouraged everyone to huddle around him as closely as they could sit. Most of the piece is extremely quiet, and everyone in the room had to keep quiet to listen.

The piece is basically Curtis bowing various points across the entire length of his cello, largely the strings but not always the strings; he works his way up, then all the way down. The piece climaxes when moves to playing the metal peg stand, which surprisingly makes an incredible high pitched pulsating sound. It actually sounds a lot like 7.5 ips reel to reel tape delay feedback, once the original signal has disintegrated entirely into oscillating white noise; in other words, it sounds a lot like her earliest feedback works. Which is really something.

hah, MP beat me to it. here's what I was about to post:

I have to spend some more time with them (it's a lot of music!) but my impression is definitely favorable. I'd been avoiding the naldjorlak material because I thought I wouldn't be as interested in radigue working outside an 'electronic' context... but I felt a little silly about that after hearing this set. different instrumentation but working towards similar goals. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you're already a fan.

Thought it would be great just through Curtis' involvement in it.

Feels like the first record of the year I need to get hold of.

You can hear Charles Curtis, Rhodri Davies, Robin Hayward and Dafne Vicente-Sandoval performing some recent Radigue pieces in this selection (the first of four) from the recent Tectonics Festival in Glasgow. Worth a listen, imho.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vgxvt

Sorry, I should say, you WILL be able to hear... after Saturday the 16th.

The Radigue pieces were extremely quiet and the audience was not, so it will be interesting to hear if some of the egregious coughs have been edited out.

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/specials/2015-eliane-radigue-feature/

great article -- wasn't aware that schaeffer and henry were chauvinists but it is not surprising.

Thanks for posting!

Tx!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVAM_O7Z2y8

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DAWBuyzPwvg

rhodri davies doing occam i a week or two back was a gorgeous thing

trilogie d'la mort on has been on repeat for the past two weeks while i read / sleep / do yoga etc

and sit and eat chocolate and nuts like i'm doing right now.

finally accepting orders: http://www.shiiin.com/shiiineer1.php

also, Issue #1 of Blank Forms has published Ian Nagoski's 1998 interview with Radigue originally intended for the cancelled Halana #5, and it is a particularly interesting interview. whole issue solid, Amacher cover story too.

http://blankforms.org/magazine/

second volume is Occam Océan for Orchestra

the slow bank into the final third is a sound I haven't really exactly heard

New to this, 'Trilogie De La Mort' is just amazing. Which one do I check out next, or is it simply "all good"?

she's consistent, though each work is just distinct enough so everyone has different favorites. so the 14 CD INAGRM box that came out last year can't be beat.

there are now three distinct periods, feedback (1960~1970), synthesizer (1970~2005), acoustic (2005 onward). the box covers the synth period minus 'Transamorem - Transmortem'. The Alga Marghen label put out three compilations of the early works, 'Feedback Music' is a good start, the two 'Occam Océan' CDs are probably the place to start with the acoustic.

Been listening to Geelriandre / Arthesis on YouTube as I was considering buying the vinyl reissue on Important Records. Does anyone know if it comes with a download? I’m suspecting it doesn’t.

Just picked up the Adnos trilogy. Looking forward to diving in later.

have been mesmerised by Occam Ocean 2 today.

Eliane Radigue is the motherfucking bomb y'all forever in my heart and soul

there's a live performance from a couple of years back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jdHIHzvhkQ

Already sold out! Hope there will be a second run.

In other news the 14 CD INA/GRM box set is back in print.

https://boomkat.com/products/electronic-works

That's a really nice package but I just recently purchased Adnos I-III and Trilogie de la Mort as stand-alones, so I think I'll pass.

(xp) ... as is Bernard Parmegiani, "L’œuvre musical en 12 CD", because I've just ordered it.

Thanks for the heads up. Also bought the Parmegiani. This is the kind of classical music I buy on BoomKat.

In other news the 14 CD INA/GRM box set is back in print.

Indeed it is and I found a pretty cheap copy of it online and ordered it ... only for it to be caught up in a dispute between Parcelforce and this hellhole of a local post office of mine. Basically someone at the post office has stolen it and they're desperately trying to cover their tracks by denying they ever received it, Parcelforce are just pointing to their records and saying they did. Did. Didn't. Did. Didn't. Did. Didn't. Did. Didn't. Meanwhile, I'm stuck in the middle, having spent almost as much on phonecalls as the value of the box set (quite literally) with no prospect of ever receiving it and not much more prospect of ever receiving any compensation for it. I would call the British postal service third world but that would be insulting to most third world countries.

Can't wait until the postal thief puts it on and wonders wtf he stole.

With a bit of luck they'll return it as faulty.

To me. In person. It's an unusual crime, for sure.

An old friend of mine who was a postie in the 90's did a couple of years in prison for that. I can't remember if he was stealing mail or he just couldn't be arsed delivering it but they threw the book at him. He was living at his brother's house and due to a misunderstanding the cops broke his brother's door in after a couple of unanswered welfare check visits and then saw a pile of undelivered mail next to a post bag and reported it straight to the Post Office. After that I always assumed mail/parcel theft by postal workers was perhaps too risky to be a common sort of crime.

This hasn't been stolen by a postie it's been stolen by one of the staff at the post office branch.

Apparently parcels are constantly going missing at this post office. I think they rely on the fact that so many of their customers don't know how to go about making a claim. A lot of their clientele don't have very good (or any) English language skills or are ancient and/or unlikely to have sufficient knowledge/ skills/ support. Also there's a lot of transitory residents in this area. It's no a service, it's a cash cow for a bunch of cynical crooks.

There used to be a nice big post office on Holloway Road - well run and with helpful and knowledgeable staff. That got sold off and is now a B & Q. Instead we ended up with this utter shithole which has been run by a never-ending stream of shysters and cowboys ever since

The place is completely desolate, there's nothing in it apart from a photo booth machine that no-one uses and a couple of dilapidated shelves with some diaries for sale sitting on them. And the inevitable mobile phone shop. This is in area where the rents are completely through the roof despite being an absolute dump.

If you ever want to see a metaphor for the UK in 2022, visit this place. Just don't get any mail delivered there.

Guess what was waiting for me when I got home tonight? Turned up just as mysteriously as it disappeared. Just as well as last time I checked it was on sale for twice what I paid for it.

Yay! "A letter always arrives at its destination"

Neither snow nor rain nor sludge nor drizzle nor the wrong kind of leaves on the line stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, they just like to take their time

To be accurate, the couriers did their job two weeks ago, it was Holloway Post Office who "couldn't find it" and claimed till they were blue in the face that they'd never received it in the first place.

Yeah I went to that place once, never again! Good to know The Drone lives to fight another day though.

This Sunday:

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/eliane-radigue-exploring-occam-rhodri-davies-friends/

Preceded by:

https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/contemporary/gavin-bryars-at-80/