The French composer and musique concrète pioneer Éliane Radigue has died at the age of 94.
“It is with immense sadness that we learn of the passing of Éliane Radigue at the age of 94,” the Paris-based experimental music center INA GRM posted on Instagram. “A major figure in musical creation has left us.”
Born in Paris in 1932, Radigue learned piano as a child, but hearing the electroacoustic compositions of musique concrète godfather Pierre Schaeffer on the radio in the early 1950s unlocked something new, setting the course for her own studies in sound. After meeting Schaeffer by chance in the French capital, she worked an assistant for the composer.
“I was just cutting, splicing and editing tape,” she told the Guardian in a 2011 interview. “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.”
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 just dug under its skin,” she said, and used the ARP 2500 synth to create much of her shape-shifting, meditative music that incorporated feedback and tape hiss. Beyond France, she caught the attention of US composers such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who were captivated by her innovative approach to sound.
“What my generation did wasn’t a revolution,” said Reich. “It was a restoration of harmony and rhythm in a whole new way, but it did bring back those essentials that people wanted, that people craved, but in a way they hadn’t heard.”
On her celebrated Occam Ocean series, Radigue collaborated with solo musicians and ensembles to create drone soundscapes inspired by the vastness of the sea and as an antidote to hectic modern life. “She carved out her own path with unparalleled freedom and vision,” wrote INA GRM. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and collaborators.”