Éliane Radigue: Occam Océan

Kyema by the French composer Éliane Radigue deals with ways of relating to death that have nothing to do with the typical clichés. In this case, they are taken from the Tibetan Book of the Dead and its descriptions of the six intermediate states that constitute the existential continuum of being, hence the work’s circular nature. As the title reveals, water plays a star role in Occam Ocean, with the emphasis on its cyclical existence and constant flow. Through incredibly precise control of sound, with the to-ing and fro-ing of the performers’ “solos”, the piece seeks to raise a greater awareness of tiny vibrational variations. Catherine Lamb works along similar lines, creating juxtapositions: layers that become dense or atmospheric, as if, in the composer’s own words, each performer were a glass that either let light through or else blocked it out. The three pieces thus demonstrate the artificiality of the beginning and end of all music, whose main characteristic is its collusion in the continuum of time.