Infinitely Discreet: The Music Of Electroacoustic Pioneer Eliane Radigue

“Infinitely discreet… next to which all other music seems to be tugging at one’s sleeve for attention.”
— Michel Chion, in Les Musiques Electroacoustiques

Eliane Radigue is a musical pioneer who has been creating her own brand of electroacoustic music since the 60s. Her music explores a slow and ever transforming state, where sounds seem to evolve on their own, taking the listener on an abstract journey. In 1957 and 1958 Radigue studied electroacoustic music techniques at the Studio D’Essai, RTF (Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française) under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. Throughout most of her career, she chose to work with an ARP Synthesizer and medium recording tape. Like her music, her career has taken its time progressing over the decades, as Radigue’s life was conducted with the same approach—taking the time out to savor important moments and never being afraid to slow things down.

After experiencing some early success making music, she took a ten year break to raise the three children she has with her husband, the artist Arman. Returning to music briefly in the early ’70s, she found Tibetan Buddhism in 1975 and again went on a 4 year hiatus. When she finally returned in 1979, it was as a mature artist, and it was during this period that she created some of her best known works—“Triptych,” and what probably her most famous work, “Jetsun Mila,” inspired by her time as a Buddhist. It is said that Jetsun Milarepa, the most famous Tibetan Buddhist and teacher, wrote 100,000 songs to express his teachings, and it would seem that Radigue was attempting to follow in his footsteps.

“Jetsun Mila”

In recent years, Radigue has worked with musicians worldwide, producing work for individual performers such as bass player Kasper Toeplitz, and more recently the cellist Charles Curtis. Still in demand for her own music, she recently performed at Presences Electronique, a festival that celebrates pioneers in experimental electronic music, in March of this year.

“L’ile Re-Sonante”

Currently across London, the network Sound and Music, which promotes challenging contemporary music and sound art, is showing a retrospective of Eliane Radigue’s work. The venues are churches and concert spaces where the full subtleties of her work can be heard as intended. The retrospective ends on June 25 at St Steven’s Church, Walbrook, London with “L’ile Re-Sonante,” which Radigue finished in 2000. This was the last work she produced with an ARP 2500 synthesizer, which she has decided to stop using for the remainder of her career. But while her time producing music with that instrument may have come to an end, Radigue’s powerful and individual body of work continues to expand five decades later, maintaining its subtle modesty and sense of cultural relevance.

Eliane Radigue, "Kyema, Intermediate States" (1992) by Dharma/Arte