L’Ile Re-sonante

Relax, lie back on a cushion, open a book or just close your eyes and let yourself drift into the mesmerising sound world of Eliane Radigue.

L’Ile Re-sonante (2000) is Radigue’s deeply personal composition for the modular synthesizer ARP 2500 and tape loops. She started using synthesizers in the early 1970s, around the same time as she began practising Tibetan Buddhism. This hypnotic piece is harmonically rich in superimposed drones and oscillations, and expresses a constant state of flux. It was inspired by the Tibetan concept of sunyata (emptiness) as well as a vision of a mysterious island reflected in the waters of a lake. The piece acts as an aural mirage that appears and disappears out of silence.

The French composer emerged from the GRM (Group de Recherches Musicales), the pioneering electronic music circle of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry in late 1950s Paris. The work will be performed in Deichmansalen by electroacoustic musician François Bonnet, current director of the GRM.

Before this concert, in the music section of the library on the third floor (‘musikkavdeling’), composition and performance students from the Norwegian Academy of Music will present a programme of their own music inspired by Radigue, resonance / resonate..