Opening the CTM.12 festival this year is a very special homage to French electronic music composer Eliane Radigue. Active for over 40 years, Radigue is considered by many a pioneer in electronic music, using synthesizer and tape to create pieces of long duration and deep contemplation. By reducing her compositions to a few sound events that gradually appear, overlap, recede, and oscillate in critical frequencies over long periods of time, Radigue produces a hyper-attentive environment in which each sound is maximally charged. Space and time seem to deform and dissolve. Sound becomes a door into a world beyond.
CTM’s homage to this tireless pioneer begins with the opening-night presentation of her latest work, "Naldjorlak", the first part of which was created in 2005 with the celebrated cellist Charles Curtis. Part two of the work was created in 2007, specifically for basset-horn players Carol Robinson and Bruno Martinez. The final section of "Naldjorlak" was completed together with the trio, and the complete work "Naldjorlak I, II, III" was presented for the first time in 2009. This very same trio – Curtis, Robinson, and Martinez – will be present for a rare performance of the complete "Naldjorlak" cycle at CTM.12.
The homage to Eliane Radigue continues Tuesday 31.1. with a conversation between Eliane Radigue and Thibaut de Ruyter, as well as the presentation of her early electronic work PSI 847.
Naldjorlak at ISEA 2010, Dortmund, August 2010.
