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RYOJI IKEDA
Invited artist in nuit blanche 2008, Paris
The Paris night sky is illuminated with blinding white light beamed vertically from scores of highly powered architectural lamps; spectra [paris] is a major new work by international artist Ryoji Ikeda, commissioned for Nuit Blanche, the city’s annual white night contemporary arts festival. The lighting is accompanied by a sound composition. As visitors move through the field of light they each experience a unique symphony of ultra pure sine sound waves. Situated on a plaza next to the tallest skyscraper in France, Ikeda’s startling twelve-hour transformation of Paris is one of the key events for Nuit Blanche.
Spectra [paris] follows spectra [amsterdam] (picture left), Ikeda’s acclaimed commission for DREAM AMSTERDAM 2008, his first large-scale project for a public spaces in which he created sculptural interventions using intense white light at found locations across the city.
Previously shown in Amsterdam, spectra consists of a powerful white light whose beam radically alters architectural and urban spaces. Each version is designed specifically to suit the scale and features of the site in question.
Visible from Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, spectra will be combined with the acoustic installation matrix, the two merging into a single work. Ultra-high intensity projectors are arranged in squares at the foot of the north wall of the Tour Montparnasse (facing rue de Rennes). The vertical beam of light is accompanied by a horizontal layer of pure sound waves. As visitors walk around the exhibit, their movements interfere with the sound waves, thereby continually creating new pieces of music.
This project has the support of Caisse des Dépôts and Ensemble Immobilier Tour Maine Montparnasse.
42-year-old Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda is one of the world’s greatest performers and composers of electronic music. Focusing on the perception phenomenon and the intrinsic properties of sound, Ryoji Ikeda uses the very latest technologies to manipulate the most minute elements possible. An active figure on the Japanese and international scenes since 1995, Ryoji Ikeda’s sound-and-vision performances at concerts have taken his reputation beyond the music world. He has produced work in collaboration with artists’ collective Dumb Type, choreographer William Forsythe of the Frankfurt Ballet, architect Toyo Ito and artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Biography
Ryoji Ikeda (born 1966 in Gifu, Japan) is a Japanese sound artist who lives and works in New York City. Sometimes harsh, sometimes remarkably gentle, Ikeda’s music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of “raw” states, such as sine tones and noise, often using frequencies at the edges of the range of human hearing. The conclusion of his album +/- features just such a tone; of it, Ikeda says “a high frequency sound is used that the listener becomes aware of only upon its disappearance” (from the CD booklet). Rhythmically, Ikeda’s music is highly imaginative, exploiting beat patterns and, at times, using a variety of discrete tones and noise to create the semblance of a drum machine. His work also encroaches on the world of ambient music; many tracks on his albums are concerned with slowly evolving soundscapes, with little or no sense of pulse.
In addition to working as a solo artist, he has also collaborated with, among others, Carsten Nicolai (under the name “Cyclo.”) and the art collective Dumb Type. His work matrix won the Golden Nica Award in 2001.
Albums
– 1000 Fragments (CCI Recordings, 1995)
– +/- (Touch, 1996)
– 0°C (Touch, 1998)
– 99 (1999) :: Variations For Modulated 440Hz Sinewaves :: / 20′ To
2000.March (Raster-Norton, 1999)
– Mort Aux Vaches (Mort Aux Vaches, 1999)
– Time And Space (Staalplaat, 1999)
– Matrix (Touch, 2001)
– Mort Aux Vaches, Second Edition (Vpro, 2002)
– Op. (Touch, 2002)
– Dataplex (Raster-Norton, 2005)
Compilations
– Silence CD (Spiral, 1993)
– S/N (Dumb Type; Spiral 1994)
– Document 02 – Sine (Dorobo, 1995)
– Statics (Cci recordings, 1995)
– Mesmervariations (Ash International, 1995)
– A Fault in the Nothing (Ash International, 1996)
– Night Passage: demixed (Dorobo, 1996)
– Atomic Weight (Iridium, 1996)
– Touch Sampler 2 (Touch, 1996)
– Tulpas (Selektion, 1997)
– OR (Dumb Type; Foil Records, 1998)
– Chill Out (Sabotage, 1998)
– Meme (meme, 1998)
– Modulations (Caipirinha, 1998)
– Stilluppsteypa Remix (Fire Inc., 1998)
– END ID (Digital Narcis, 1999)
– Modulation & Transformation 4 (Mille Plateaux, 1999)
– Microscopic (Caipirinha, 1999)
– Touch Sampler 0 (Touch, 2000)
– Memorandum (Dumb Type; Cci recordings, 2000)
– Clicks & Cuts 2 (Mille Plateaux, 2001)
– An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music, Vol.1 (Sub Rosa, 2002)
– Touch 25 (Touch, 2007)
– Source: Nuit Blanche
– Ryoji Ikeda official web-site
