“Experimental Electronic” (Used 7 times)

Eliane Radigue, really one of the great living composers in the world, was in Brooklyn last year for her New York debut performance of the epic Naldjorlak cycle.  I've been an almost rabid fan of her music after first hearing it on Lovely Music, Robert Ashley's label, and my fervor was renewed when Important Records released Triptych and Vice Versa last year. So when I found out she was coming to play in Brooklyn, I was more than ecstatic.  When I found out she would agree to do a short interview with me for DRAM and New World Radio I think I melted.

DRAM has an archival presence, meaning we are in the process of digitizing and preserving a number of stockpiles of amazing music for streaming on our site.  This is basically the meat and potatoes of my job here at the office.  My most recent project has been to work on the archive of Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia space.  Our first undertaking was to digitize and preserve 40 radio shows that Phill made with artists that visited the EI space in the 1980s.  Among them is an interview and live performance of Eliane Radigue.

Kismet, right?  I totally agree.  This gave me something to talk about and a neat little package to wrap it up in.  The stars were aligning in a very lovely little pattern. I should have known better. I woke up on the Sunday we were supposed to meet with the meanest of flus. The Mr. T of flus. I drank as much tea as possible, bundled up and headed out to Brooklyn anyway, eager not to miss a chance to meet with Eliane, and with the plans to keep my germ-ridden self as far away from her as I could without being rude.  On top of this, there was a lot of confusion as I walked into the space with my microphone and recorder, because there was supposed to be a recording engineer there to do a soundcheck and I guess he hadn't shown.  Glares of disappointment and disapproval hit me like waves, snapping me out of my dream of warm embraces and handshakes of friendship.  Luckily, Carol Robinson (who had been setting up the interview) realized I was just a helpless bystander, and not the engineer errant. Glares were retracted and, while no hugs were exchanged, we continued on much friendlier terms.

All in all, the stars aligned, albeit in a somewhat skewed pattern, and it was an amazing 15 minutes of talking with Eliane and Carol Robinson about their work as composer and performer respectively in a warm hotel room in downtown Brooklyn.  The piece is presented here in combination with Phill's original radio show and with excerpts from a live performance of Adnos III and Charles Curtis' performance of one of the movements of Naldjorlak.