Éliane Radigue

In the presence of Éliane Radigue. Co-conception of the program: Carol Robinson.
With: Robin Hayward (tuba), Louis-Michel Marion (double bass) and Erwan Keravec (bagpipe).

After several collaborations with pioneering electroacoustic composer Éliane Radigue, the Nomadic Nights are pleased to present the very first retrospective devoted to her OCCAMs. Fascinating instrumental pieces, which she refers to as her “sound fantasies”; bespoke compositions are created in collaboration with her performers. This program has been designed with Éliane Radigue and Carol Robinson especially for the Fondation Cartier.

Program:

• OCCAM XI (25’), Robin Hayward (tuba)
• OCCAM XIX (35’), Louis Michel Marion (double bass)
• OCCAM XXVII (25’), Erwan Keravec (bagpipe)

Biographies

Éliane Radigue (born in 1932, in Paris) is renowned for her electronic music, produced with feedbacks and reinjections, and in particular with the ARP 2500 synthesizer. Her compositions are defined by micro-events due to subtle changes in harmonics that dance above a seemingly static tone. The result is deeply moving. In 2005, Radigue began to compose for acoustic instruments with fellow musicians, first with Naldjorlak, her masterpiece for two basset horns and cello, and later with OCCAM OCEAN, her endless cycle. These new works have been presented in museums, concert halls and festivals in the world... She recently received a special mention from the jury of the Evens Foundation and the Giga-Hertz Award from the ZKM in Germany as well as the Open Oor Composition Prize in the Netherlands.

Carol Robinson is a Franco-American composer and clarinetist specializing in experimental creation. She performs in major international venues and festivals, and regularly collaborates with choreographers, photographers and musicians from various backgrounds. She is the author of some sixty works for various formations, which often incorporate electronics. Besides her own music, her recent discography includes those of great contemporary composers, alternative rock, jazz and classical music. Carol Robinson has worked closely with Éliane Radigue since 2006.

Tuba player and composer Robin Hayward was born in England in 1969, and has been living in Berlin since 1998. He introduced radical innovations in brass instruments, first discovering the “noise valve” in 1996, then developing the first tuba fully microtonal in 2009. In 2012 he invented the “Hayward Tuning Vine”, in part to represent the harmonic space implicit in the microtonal tuba.

Louis-Michel Marion plays the double bass and the viola da gamba. He considers these instruments, made from wood, strings, and horsehair, as virgin lands from which he can extract sound material. He then models this material in various improvised music projects and/or contemporary compositions, either working alone or in the company of multidisciplinary artists. He has collaborated with Éliane Radigue since 2014, participating in several opuses of the OCCAM OCEAN cycle. “[Marion’s] work demonstrates a desire to extract from the strings all the life they contain. The experimentation around resonances, grain, and colors makes it possible to physically feel the sound material. Like a sculpture of the invisible.” – Denis Desassis, Citizen Jazz.

Erwan Keravec plays the Scottish bagpipes, and his work ranges from composition to improvisation. His exploration of peripheral sounds, ways of playing and listening to his instrument, removed from his culture of origin, allows him to improvise, from free jazz to noise, and constitute a repertoire of contemporary music for solo bagpipes, or in tandem with a singer and choir. Curious about movement, relationships, and situations specific to reinvention, he also composes, plays, and improvises for the world of dance.