Eliane Radigue – Jouet Electronique / Elemental I

Eliane Radigue – Jouet Electronique / Elemental I
[Alga Marghen, 2010]
genre: electronic, avant-garde
album review by |kollaps|

Student of musique concrète founder Pierre Schaeffer, wife of painter/sculptor Arman and student of Pierre Henry, one of musique concrète’s most important composers, Eliane Radigue’s work seemed for while a bit overshadowed by the weight and importance of the aforementioned artists’ accomplishments, up until the late 90′s-early 00′s, when she finally gains the status of one of electronic music pioneers, a status reinforced by her reception of the Golden Nica Award at the festival Ars Electronica in 2006.
On the occasion of the fourth “Oeuvres Sonores” event at Musée National D’Art Moderne in Paris last December, Alga Marghen, the supreme italian avant-gade label, released two of Radigue’s early works in a limited edition vinyl LP, two works that instead of her beloved ARP 2500 modular synth, feature feedback and tape experiments.
The first side is dedicated to Jouet Electronique, a piece she created using occasionally up to four tape recorders to create, layer and manipulate tape feedback. The result is quite surprising, given the fact that the tools she had at her disposal where quite limited compared to the modern arsenal of home studios and “over-the-counter” software. Bass pulses, hisses, whistling sounds, alien noises are wonderfully arranged to offer a complete auditory narrative to the listener, bearing traces of Radigue’s subsequent minimal compositions for tapes and synthesizer.
Elemental I, whose four parts cover the LP’s second side, is based on field recordings she made at Nice (where she was living back then) which were then treated at her tape recorders. Each part is dedicated to each element she used during the recording process, Air-Vent uses sounds of wind; Feu comprises of sounds of fire; Terre-Eau-Pluie of earth, water and rain and Mer of sounds of the sea. Although the studio treatment, mostly based on echo and reverb seems quite unsophisticated nowadays (and indeed, the piece lacks the originality of Jouet Electronique), the piece offers a wonderful insight into the first years of an ever-expanding soundworld of a restless creative mind.

the album:
Jouet Electronique / Elemental I

A1 – Jouet Electronique
B1 – Elemental I: Air – Vent
B2 – Elemental I: Feu
B3 – Elemental I: Terre – Eau – Pluie
B4 – Elemental I: Mer