With Music for Strings, Ryoji Ikeda returns to the REF, continuing his exploration of acoustic music. After gaining international recognition with his kaleidoscopic sound sculptures, where electronics and new technologies are central, Ikeda, together with Ensemble Modern, takes on the challenge of transferring his language into purely acoustic compositions. With extraordinary mathematical precision, he orchestrates sounds, images, and physical phenomena, creating an intimate and profound performance specially written for Ensemble Modern. The result is a sensory experience that embraces a radical minimalist aesthetic, where sound, space, and stage action merge into an evocative ritual, far from conventions and close to a truly unique experience.
Programme:
Ryoji Ikeda (*1966)
MIRROR uno per due (2020–23)
Ryoji Ikeda
PRISM per nove archi (2023)
Ryoji Ikeda
REFLECTION per nove archi (2022/23)
Ryoji Ikeda.
Born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan, Ryoji Ikeda is one of the leading electronic composers and visual artists from Japan. He lives and works between Paris and Kyoto, focusing on the essential characteristics of sound and images such as light, through mathematical precision and aesthetics. Ikeda is recognized as one of the few international artists able to work convincingly with both visual and sound media. His works combine sound, images, materials, physical phenomena, and mathematical concepts in live performances and immersive installations.
His albums such as +/- (1996), 0°C (1998), matrix (2000), dataplex (2005), test pattern (2008), and supercodex (2013) have helped define a new minimalist world in electronic music, due to his precise aesthetic approach. Ikeda pursues long-term projects that include audiovisual performances, installations, and acoustic music compositions. His books and CDs are published by codex | edition, an online platform founded in 2018. In 2022, codex | edition and noton (DE) released ultratronics, his first album in ten years.
His acclaimed audiovisual performance superposition debuted in 2012 at the Festival d’Automne à Paris / Centre Georges Pompidou. It has since been presented in major venues such as the Barbican Centre in London (2013), Concertgebouw in Bruges (2013), Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam (2013), UCLA Center for the Arts of Performance in Los Angeles (2014), Metropolitan Museum in New York (2014), among others.
In 2016, he premiered music for percussion in collaboration with the Eklekto ensemble (CH) at the La Bâtie-Festival de Genève. That same year, he created the drone symphony A [for 100 cars], commissioned by the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in Los Angeles. At the 2019 Fluxus Festival, he presented his composition 100 cymbals, commissioned by the LA Philharmonic. He also collaborated with Hiroshi Sugimoto for At the Hawk’s Well (2019) and with choreographer Pontus Lidberg for Centaur (2020). In 2020, he participated in the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, presenting the premiere of music for percussion 2. Currently, he is working on commissions with Les Percussions de Strasbourg (FR) and Ensemble Modern (DE). In 2022, he presented his new audiovisual live set ultratronics in Tokyo at WWWX Shibuya and MUTEK.JP.
Ensemble Modern is a bold amplifier for the music of our times: courageous, uncompromising, energetic. An essential, polyglot amplifier for cutting-edge sound concepts. It is one of the most well-known and influential contemporary music ensembles in the world. Founded in 1980 and based in Frankfurt am Main, the ensemble is currently made up of 18 soloists who democratically decide on all artistic and financial matters. The musicians come from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Switzerland, and the USA, and collectively decide on artistic projects, collaborations, and financial matters. Its broad aesthetic spectrum includes musical theatre works, dance and multimedia projects, chamber music, ensemble concerts, and orchestral performances. Ensemble Modern regularly participates in renowned festivals and performs at major international venues. Each year, the ensemble rehearses an average of 70 new works, 20 of which are world premieres, some commissioned by the ensemble itself. The works are rehearsed in close contact with the composers to achieve the highest precision in bringing their ideas to life. Ensemble Modern has collaborated with renowned artists such as John Adams, Mark Andre, George Benjamin, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, and many others. Since 2000, the ensemble has had its own record label, Ensemble Modern Media, and has released about 150 audio recordings with other established labels. In 2003, the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) was founded to promote music education. In 2024, Ensemble Modern was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale Music Festival.
