Eliane RADIGUE
“Asymptote Versatile (1963-64)”

Éliane Radigue completed her piece Asymptote Versatile in New York in 1964. The piece had never been performed publicly until Rhodri Davies convened an ensemble to perform the work at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November 2023. The first performance took place just short of sixty years after the piece was conceived, and that is the music that you hear on this CD.

The pioneering French artist referred to her 1960s works as propositions sonores, rather than compositions, and this piece is the only one she kept from the period. The graphic score comprises logarithmic curves devised from the Fibonacci sequence, superimposed over sheets of additional notation, to be performed as sustained tones by up to four groups of acoustic instrumentalists spanning the full range of the audible spectrum. ASYMPTOTE VERSATILE sows the seeds of Radigue’s exploration of long durational forms, bridging a 50-year gap between the school of composers she met in 1960s New York and her 2011- onwards OCCAM OCEAN series, where she composes for individual instrumentalists. This recording includes many of the OCCAM soloists who have worked closely with the composer and are steeped in Radigue’s aesthetics and working methods.

“I was young when I composed the Fibonacci suite. I was in New York at that time… During this period of my life I was very interested in mathematics and for this piece I constructed a logarithmic spiral. It is to do with the infinitesimal; the ever-changing, until its destruction in the dance of constant change. It is this versatility, nevertheless, which maintains the rule; it is about playing with the rule. So we gave this concept of a special equilibrium, which is forever being readjusted.”
Eliane Radigue in conversation with Rhodri Davies on 26 June 2023, Paris

Xavier Charles: clarinet
Angharad Davies: violin
Rhodri Davies: harp
Julia Eckhardt: viola
Bertrand Gauguet: alto saxophone
Susan Geaney: bass flute
Dominic Lash: double bass
Thierry Madiot: bass trombone
Aonghus McEvoy: guitar
Hannah Miller: french horn
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh: viola
Carol Robinson: bass clarinet

Accompanying booklet in French and English.
Introduction by Rhodri Davies and Julia Eckhardt.