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Eliane Radigue, Composer of Time, Silence and Space, Dies at 94
Éliane Radigue, Composer of Time, Silence and Space, Dies at 94
Her Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice and her experiments with synthesizers came together in vast, slow-moving works that drew wide acclaim.
Éliane Radigue in 2011. Her subtly shifting textures seemed to ebb and flow glacially, without the sense of forward motion or drama that has characterized much of Western music. Aude Paget/INA, via Getty Images
By Peter Catapano
Feb. 24, 2026
Éliane Radigue, a French composer whose Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice and experiments with synthesizers came together in vast, slow-moving works that could feel altogether outside time, died on Monday in Paris. She was 94. ... Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by the composer and clarinetist Carol Robinson, a friend and collaborator. She said the cause was complications after a fall.
“Time, silence and space are the main factors constituting my music,” Ms. Radigue told The New York Times for a profile in 2022. “Shivering space, like a soft breath, induces the vibrations of the silence slightly, becoming sound.”
From the start of her career in the 1960s, Ms. Radigue’s stature among her colleagues and listeners grew steadily but slowly, much like the pace of her compositions. Her shifting textures seemed to ebb and flow glacially, without the sense of forward motion or drama that has characterized much of Western music.
In a 1973 review of “Psi 847,” one of her first pieces composed with her beloved ARP 2500 synthesizer, the critic John Rockwell wrote in The Times that the work, which ran more than 80 minutes, “consisted almost entirely of thin, soft, sustained sounds” with “nothing loud, nothing dramatically contrasted.”
{snip}
Eliane Radigue | Feedback Works 1969-1970 [2012, Full Album]
{snip}
An ARP 2500 synthesizer. Ms. Radigue’s instrument, which she named Jules, was her musical collaborator for about 30 years. Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
{snip}
Ash Wu contributed reporting.
Her Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice and her experiments with synthesizers came together in vast, slow-moving works that drew wide acclaim.
Éliane Radigue in 2011. Her subtly shifting textures seemed to ebb and flow glacially, without the sense of forward motion or drama that has characterized much of Western music. Aude Paget/INA, via Getty Images
By Peter Catapano
Feb. 24, 2026
Éliane Radigue, a French composer whose Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice and experiments with synthesizers came together in vast, slow-moving works that could feel altogether outside time, died on Monday in Paris. She was 94. ... Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by the composer and clarinetist Carol Robinson, a friend and collaborator. She said the cause was complications after a fall.
“Time, silence and space are the main factors constituting my music,” Ms. Radigue told The New York Times for a profile in 2022. “Shivering space, like a soft breath, induces the vibrations of the silence slightly, becoming sound.”
From the start of her career in the 1960s, Ms. Radigue’s stature among her colleagues and listeners grew steadily but slowly, much like the pace of her compositions. Her shifting textures seemed to ebb and flow glacially, without the sense of forward motion or drama that has characterized much of Western music.
In a 1973 review of “Psi 847,” one of her first pieces composed with her beloved ARP 2500 synthesizer, the critic John Rockwell wrote in The Times that the work, which ran more than 80 minutes, “consisted almost entirely of thin, soft, sustained sounds” with “nothing loud, nothing dramatically contrasted.”
{snip}
Eliane Radigue | Feedback Works 1969-1970 [2012, Full Album]
{snip}
An ARP 2500 synthesizer. Ms. Radigue’s instrument, which she named Jules, was her musical collaborator for about 30 years. Francois Guillot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
{snip}
Ash Wu contributed reporting.