Thomas Edison was a dick. Couldn’t he just stick to being ahead of the curve in one particular area, as opposed to being a renaissance fuck face, inventing the spoon when a hollowed-out frozen snake head attached to a pencil would’ve worked just fine? You modern innovators should take a lesson from lovely Dane Else Marie Pade, who, in addition to almost single-handedly dismantling the Schutzstaffel during her World War II activist days (slight exaggeration, but she was imprisoned by the Gestapo), subsequently had a hawk-like, if incidental, focus on becoming Denmark’s “first lady of electronic music.” Now ponder who the second lady might be… that’s how good she was! Beyond imitation. Unsurpassed in talent. She studied with, ahem, musique concrète pioneer Pierre Schaeffer in Paris before creating her first electronic composition in 1958.
Her work continued until parenthood and closed-minded Danish critics compelled a lull, but now, in this arguable heyday of sound art, Important Records will be sponsoring the release of Electronic Works 1958-1995 on January 20 of next year. It’s billed as a 2CD/3LP set of Pade’s “most important” compositions — some of which you can listen to via YouTube, but as far as I know, no such compilation like this has ever been unveiled. Jacob Kirkegaard, with whom Pade recently collaborated, was the curator. D&M handled the mastering.
Electronic Works 1958-1995 tracklisting:
Disc 1: Faust Suite
01. Prolog i Himlen (4:18)
02. Faust & Mefisto (6:59)
03. Faust & Margrethes Kærlighed (7:20)
04. Margrethes Fordømmelse (4:13)
05. Rejsen til Bloksbjerg og Valborgsnat (8:25)
06. Epilog (4:47)
07. Lyd & Lys (4:43)
08. Syv Cirkler (7:17)
09. Etude (5:33)
Disc 2: Illustrationer
01. Himmelrummet (6:53)
02. Havkongens Slot (7:06)
03. Alfeland (6:10)
05. Kong Vinter (6:09)
05. Glasperlespil I (7:35)
06. Glasperlespil II (7:58)
• Important: http://importantrecords.com
More about: Else Marie Pade
