Eliane Radigue (born in 1932) is a French electronic music composer whose w… Read Full Bio ↴Eliane Radigue (born in 1932) is a French electronic music composer whose work, since the early 1970s, has been almost exclusively created using a single synthesizer, the ARP 2500 modular system, and tape.
Raised in Paris by middle-class parents, she married the sculptor Arman with whom she lived in Nice while raising their children. She had studied piano and was already composing before having heard a broadcast by the founder of musique concrète Pierre Schaeffer. She met him shortly thereafter and, in the early 50s, she became his student. Subsequently, during periodic visits to Paris she worked at the Studio d'Essai. Later, when the studio's contents were moved to the studio of the Groupe Recherche Musicale, her work was discarded, due to sexism.
During the early 60s she was assistant to Pierre Henry at which time she created some of the sounds that appeared in his work. As her work gained maturity, Schaeffer and Henry considered her use of microphone feedback with long tape loops as treachery to their own ideals.
Around 1970, she created her first synthesizer-based music at NYU at a studio she shared with Laurie Spiegel on a Buchla synthesizer left by Morton Subotnick. Her goal by that point was to create a slow, purposeful "unfolding" of sound, which she felt to be closer to contemporary minimalism composers of New York than to her previous influences, the French musique concrète composers.
After presenting the first of her Adnos in 1974 at Mills College at the invitation of Terry Riley, a group of visiting French music students suggested that her music was deeply related to meditation and that she should look into Tibetan Buddhism. Upon investigation, she quickly became devoted and spent the next three years practising under her teacher, Pao Rinpoche, who subsequently sent her back to her musical work.
She picked up where she left off, using the same methods and working toward the same goals as before, finishing Adnos II in 1979 and Adnos III in 1980. She dedicated much of the 80s to a three-hour work, perhaps her masterpiece, the Trilogie de la Mort, which was as heavily influenced by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and her meditation practice as by the death of Pao Rinpoche and her son. The first third of the Trilogie, Kyema, was her first release recording, issued by Phill Niblock's XI label.
Since then she has created a number of works, including one sponsored by the French government, based on stories from the Buddhist tradition.
She joined the laptop improvisation group The Lappetites and they released their first album Before the Libretto on the Quecksilber label in 2005. The Lappetites are Eliane Radigue, Kaffe Matthews, Ryoko Kuwajima, and Antye Greie, better known as AGF.
Raised in Paris by middle-class parents, she married the sculptor Arman with whom she lived in Nice while raising their children. She had studied piano and was already composing before having heard a broadcast by the founder of musique concrète Pierre Schaeffer. She met him shortly thereafter and, in the early 50s, she became his student. Subsequently, during periodic visits to Paris she worked at the Studio d'Essai. Later, when the studio's contents were moved to the studio of the Groupe Recherche Musicale, her work was discarded, due to sexism.
During the early 60s she was assistant to Pierre Henry at which time she created some of the sounds that appeared in his work. As her work gained maturity, Schaeffer and Henry considered her use of microphone feedback with long tape loops as treachery to their own ideals.
Around 1970, she created her first synthesizer-based music at NYU at a studio she shared with Laurie Spiegel on a Buchla synthesizer left by Morton Subotnick. Her goal by that point was to create a slow, purposeful "unfolding" of sound, which she felt to be closer to contemporary minimalism composers of New York than to her previous influences, the French musique concrète composers.
After presenting the first of her Adnos in 1974 at Mills College at the invitation of Terry Riley, a group of visiting French music students suggested that her music was deeply related to meditation and that she should look into Tibetan Buddhism. Upon investigation, she quickly became devoted and spent the next three years practising under her teacher, Pao Rinpoche, who subsequently sent her back to her musical work.
She picked up where she left off, using the same methods and working toward the same goals as before, finishing Adnos II in 1979 and Adnos III in 1980. She dedicated much of the 80s to a three-hour work, perhaps her masterpiece, the Trilogie de la Mort, which was as heavily influenced by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and her meditation practice as by the death of Pao Rinpoche and her son. The first third of the Trilogie, Kyema, was her first release recording, issued by Phill Niblock's XI label.
Since then she has created a number of works, including one sponsored by the French government, based on stories from the Buddhist tradition.
She joined the laptop improvisation group The Lappetites and they released their first album Before the Libretto on the Quecksilber label in 2005. The Lappetites are Eliane Radigue, Kaffe Matthews, Ryoko Kuwajima, and Antye Greie, better known as AGF.
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
kyema
Eliane Radigue Lyrics
No lyrics text found for this track.
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
BlupDaboloh
Listening to this makes me think about:
-2001's Monolith;
- Gravity (the movie);
- Interstellar (//);
- vintage pictures about space (both artistic illustrations and photos);
- Arecibo's Radiotelescope;
- Voyager 2's Golden Record.
Michael Maxwell Steer
Listening to this was a truly transformative experience. I had known vaguely of Eliane Radigue, but had totally forgotten her name. For some reasons I was impelled to google her this morning, while writing to another musician about the relationship between personal musical authenticity and the use of folksong. There is within Kyema an epic archetypal experience which I can recognise despite it being quite at odds with the aesthetic I have evolved in the 25 years since I was working with acousmatics myself.
Discovering Eliane Radigue's work is very much the beginning of a journey for me.
Alan Hill
Gives me the same shivers as pure overtone singing. Thank you for posting, sirianmackaye.
Pedro Moris
Recently discovered this amazing composer. She is a true old school electronic minimalist composer still using modular equipment. Music made in 1998 sounding like in the 60's. Badass
Eric Simon
I listen to this like I would sit down and listen to the small persistant rain drops quietely hitting the corrugated sheet roof of the small shelter in my garden... On another level one can look at it as a form of Tai chi for the ears... Personnaly I like to listen to such pieces at different volume settings, one day I'll put the volume on 2, on another moment i'll prefer to listen to it at VERY LOUD level. (Walls of the house are on the edge of trembling I like that)
R.D. Dragon
This is such a brilliant piece. Out of all her work that I've heard, I think this is the most melodic. It goes through so many different moods, from pure peace, to wistful yearning, through a menacing storm, to a spare and empty landscape.
Nikolai Bobrov
@zer00rdie LOL
Leon Trimble
quite agree
zer00rdie
Holds random key down for 20 seconds - "It's brilliant"
I.Hold.Vertigo
Here's a trick I discovered: Eliane builds her drones with a very strong central theme, so when she's building layers of sound on top of that, try and stay focused on that central theme without letting your mind put the new sounds she's adding to the forefront (it's a little challenging). If you can manage that, the album might make a bit more sense as far as it's relationship to Tibetan Buddhism goes.
Artem Anzen
Listening all day while doing writing and graphic editing, best music for quiet thoughtful activities.