First ever release of this really important masterpiece. During the 1950s, Eliane Radigue drew her first substantial nourishment as a composer from the innovations of musique concrete. Previously, she had played the twelve tone game, but found it unfulfilling. Then, while working as Pierre Henry's assistant, she chanced upon electronic feedback effects. "I was absolutely fascinated," Radigue remarks in a telephone interview, "not only by the sounds but by their behavior. With the tape recorders of that period, a little defect could bring interesting results. I found this garbage of sounds very expressive."
... Radigue embarked on her own course, turning her attention to synthesizers which allowed easier building of the sounds she required. An ARP analog synthesizer has remained her chosen means to make music, although for 25 years her style has been Minimalist. PSI 847 was her breakthrough piece - for the first time her musical conception was closely matched in execution over 80 minutes of sustained, gentle sound.
"The duration was just a matter of the necessary time I had to go through in order to reach what was my real goal," she explains, "which is still my goal, a very slow changing process within the sound itself. Something which is not external to the sound." She feels that the nature of her chosen synthesizer's modular system grants her "access within the flesh of the sounds".
11.72 - Synthétiseur ARP 2500 sur bande magnétique. Réalisée au studio de la compositrice. Mixage final aux studios du Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges / ARP 2500 synthesizer on magnetic tapes. Produced at the composer's studio. Final mixdown at GMEB, Bourges
02.73 - Première création lors d'une résidence aux Studios de musique électronique de l'université de l'Iowa / First creation while in residence at the Electronic Music Studios of the University of Iowa
31.01.2012 - Concert: Club Transmediale, Berlin. Interprétation de Lionel Marchetti à partir des bandes magnétiques orginales / Lionel Marchetti's interpretation with original magnetic tapes
11.2012 - ORAL 57
CD 1. Version concert. Enregistrement en concert de l'interprétation spatiale de Lionel Marchetti. Enregistrement stéréophonique réalisé par Marcus Gammel (Deutschlandradio), matricé et remixé en studio par Lionel Marchetti / Live recording of the spatial interpretation by Lionel Marchetti. Stereophonic recording directed by Marcus Gammel (Deutschlandradio), mastered and remixed by Lionel Marchetti
CD 2. Version studio. Bande magnétique originale, format 6/25, 19 cm/s, matricée par Lionel Marchetti à l'automne 2012 / Original magnetic tape, size 6/25, 19cm/s, mastered by Lionel Marchetti, autumn 2012
Composition: 1972
Interprétation: 2012
Textes: 2012
(c) Éliane Radigue, SACEM. 1973, 2012
(p) ORAL 57
Title on release: Ψ 847
Released in oversized gatefold card sleeve, with 24 pp. booklet. First run of 1000 copies.
