by Kaffe Matthews and music for bodies playing “Transamorem – Transmortem” by Eliane Radigue
Sun 12 June – Sun 26 June
Studio 1
12 noon – 9pm
Free
Sonic Bed London is a purpose built portable venue which plays music that moves for the prone bodies of an audience. Subtle, dynamic and at times beyond hearing, Sonic Bed plays music to feel rather than just listen to.

Sonic Bed London was commissioned by Electra for Her Noise, 2005 supported by the Arts Council England and Women in Music, and is a central pin in the research project “music for bodies” exploring sound, architecture, furniture, clothes and the vibrations of the human body to make new music and ways of enjoying it (www.musicforbodies.net). It was awarded a Distinction at Prix Ars Electronica Digital Music 2006 and has been exhibited in Austria, France and London.

Sound and Music presents the first major UK retrospective of the work of Eliane Radigue, one of the most celebrated and influential of living composers. This London-wide festival stages a curated selection of Radigue’s work including her extraordinary compositions for acoustic instruments, her classic electronic compositions and a unique presentation of her installation works.

At Watermans audience members will be able to experience some of Radigue’s rarely heard and most minimal music on a sonic bed designed by the artist Kaffe Matthews. Listeners will be able to lie within Radigue’s slowly evolving soundscapes and feel the music move up, down and around their bodies in ever changing patterns of vibration. This west London bed is mirrored by another in the east end, at Rich Mix in Bethnal Green, which plays another unique Radigue work.

Since the 1960s Eliane Radigue (born Paris, 1932) has created a singular, powerful and individual body of work. Strongly influenced by her studies of Tibetan Buddhism, her works since the mid 70s have explored slowly evolving states where musical change is perceived as environmental in scale, constant in evolution and virtually imperceptible in transformation. Often monumental in duration, her music communicates a sublime spiritual power, transporting the listener on a journey into the very heart of sound. A true original, Radigue has followed an artistic path unfettered through association to any schools and trends. She is now celebrated as a true innovator, pioneer and musical visionary. The audience at Triptych will be truly immersed in sound in venues chosen in consultation with the artist for their resonant beauty and rich acoustics.

Stand here and you will hear the music, lie in the Bed and you will feel it make another sense, transformed into an immersive and intimate experience

Other events in the Triptych season include: Café Oto – Free launch event

Emmanuel Holterbach is Eliane Radigue’s assistant and an acknowledged expert on her music. Using rarely heard audio examples from Radigue’s personal archive he’ll explore the major periods of the composer’s output and the context and ongoing reception of her work. This event is free and unticketed

Christ Church Spitalfields Performances as part of Spitalfields Music’s Summer Festival of Radigue’s celebrated collaborations with performers including the first UK performance of the monumental Naldjorlak trilogy and the world premiere of Occam 1 for solo harp, a work completed this year on her 79th birthday.

St. Stephens Walbrook. Eight concerts of Radigue’s classic electronic works in one of London’s most beautiful acoustics. This concert series will including the epic Trilogie De Le Mort, a spiritual acoustic journey reflecting on the transcendence of death, and a special concert of the composer’s early and very rarely heard feedback works.

Works in the Triptych season are performed by leading international musicians who have become key collaborators with Eliane Radigue, including Charles Curtis, Carol Robinson, Bruno Martinez, Kasper T Toeplitz, Rhodri Davies and The Lappetites.

“Eliane Radigue’s creative output ranks as one of the most revered oeuvres in all of electronic music.” (Boomkat)
“A total epiphany”
(The Wire on Naldjorlak)
“Time stops, sound surrounds, and when it’s done, you’re changed.”
(Dusted magazine on Jetsun Mila)
“a steady stream of sonic activity taking place right at the edge of one’s perception”
(New York Times)

Review in The Guardian

Please see www.soundandmusic.org for full programme details