, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

), son of the art director Georges Wakhévitch

Georges Wakhevitch

Georges Wakhévitch was an art director .He was raised in Paris, where he studied painting. He was an assistant to film director Lazare Meerson in the 1920s....

, is an avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 French composer who released a series of studio albums in the 1970s and composed the music for the Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

 opera Être Dieu

Être Dieu

Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties is a self-proclaimed "opera-poem" written by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, based on a libretto by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán with music by French avant-garde musician Igor Wakhévitch...

. He was a contemporary of similar avant-garde electronic composers, such as Pierre Henry

Pierre Henry

Pierre Henry is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music.-Biography:...

, who was also born and based in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

Although Wakhévitch is a relatively unknown composer, he gained a small cult following in the late 1990s after praise circulated by Nurse with Wound

Nurse with Wound

Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak...

 (on the list of influences

Nurse with Wound list

The Nurse with Wound list is a list of 291 musicians and bands that accompanied Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella , the first album by Nurse With Wound...

 in their first album

Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella

Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella was the debut album by Nurse With Wound, released on their own United Dairies label in 1979. The album enjoys a reputation as one of the most singular debuts of all time...

, from 1979), Michael Gira

Michael Gira

Michael Rolfe Gira is an American musician, author, and artist. He is the main force behind the recently reformed New York City musical group Swans and fronts the Angels of Light...

 of Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

 and a review of one of his studio albums by Dominique Leone for a feature entitled "It Was the Strangest Record I Had Ever Heard" on Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

.

From the age of eight, Wakhévitch learned to play piano under the tutelage of Louise Clavius-Marius and Lucette Descaves. Between the ages of 12 to 17, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

. During this time, he was auditioned by Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan

Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...

 for a concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....

, and in 1965 he won the Jury's First Prize for Piano by a unanimous vote. In 1967, studying under Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

, Wakhévitch won the first prize in Musical Analysis. In 1968, he worked for the GRM in the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer

Pierre Schaeffer

Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...

.

Wakhévitch was a part of the 1960s atmosphere of musical integration and boundary crossing. He was friends with Maurice Béjart

Maurice Béjart

Maurice Béjart was a French born, Swiss choreographer who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He was the son of the French philosopher Gaston Berger.- Biography :...

, who encouraged him to compose for contemporary dance companies, and studied with Pierre Schaeffer

Pierre Schaeffer

Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...

; while his second album, Doctor Faust, was dedicated to his friends Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

 and Mike Ratledge

Mike Ratledge

Michael Roland "Mike" Ratledge is a British musician. Ratledge was part of the Canterbury scene and a long-time member of Soft Machine.-Biography and career:...

 of rock group The Soft Machine

Soft Machine

Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...

. At the beginning of the 1970s, Wakhevitch became friends and studied with minimalist

Minimalism

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or concepts...

 musician Terry Riley

Terry Riley

Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...

, producing Riley's soundtrack album Happy Ending in 1972. Through Riley, Wakhevitch discovered the ragas of Pandit Pran Nath

Pandit Pran Nath

Pandit Pran Nath was a Hindustani classical singer and teacher of the Kirana gharana , with a successful American career.-Early life:...

.

In 1974, Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....

 asked him to compose music to accompany his 'opera-poem in six parts' entitled "To Be God". The album was recorded in the Studios of EMI in Boulogne, performed by various speakers and singers, an orchestra, and a rock band which featured the actors Raymond Gérôme, Delphine Seyrig

Delphine Seyrig

Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig was a stage and film actress and a film director.-Early life:...

, Catherine Allegret

Catherine Allégret

Catherine Allégret is a French actress. She is the daughter of Simone Signoret and Yves Allégret.In 2004, she published a book titled World Upside Down in which she contended that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather Yves Montand since the age of 5.In 2007, she portrayed Édith Piaf's...

, Alain Cuny and Didier Haudepin; and musicians Michel Ripoche on violin, Didier Batard on bass and François Auger on drums. Wakhevitch visited India in 1973, and moved to Auroville

Auroville

Auroville is an "experimental" township in Viluppuram district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, near Pondicherry in South India. It was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa and designed by architect Roger Anger...

 in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

 in 1980. In 1991, he met the Dalai Lama in the Théâtre Renault-Barrault in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 at a performance by the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts.

In 1998, the 6-CD box set Donc was released on Fractal Records to mark Wakhevitch's 50th birthday. It incorporated his first six albums: Logos (1970), Docteur Faust (1971), Hathor (1974), Les Fous d'Or (1975), Nagual (1977), and Let's Start (1979). Only Être Dieu (1974) was omitted, as it received its own 3-CD box set in 1992.

Discography

• Logos (Rituel Sonore) (1970)
• Docteur Faust (1971)
• Être Dieu
  Être Dieu
  Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties is a self-proclaimed "opera-poem" written by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, based on a libretto by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán with music by French avant-garde musician Igor Wakhévitch...
  
  (1974)
• Hathor (Lithurgie Du Souffle Pour La Résurrection Des Morts) (1974)
• Les Fous d'Or (1975)
• Nagual (Les Ailes De La Perception) (1977)
• Let's Start (1979)
• Ahata Anahata (2006)

External links

• Official site (Completely blank as of August 18, 2007.)
• [ Allmusic] entry for Igor Wakhevitch.
• Centennial Magazine entry for Dali's Opera-Poem and performance in 2004, without Wakhevitch's score.
• John Coulthart entry for the Donc box set and a photo of Wakhévitch.
• Fractal biography and discography in French.
• Fractal review of the Donc box set in English and French.
• Listology entry featuring a paragraph of references and reviews of Wakhevitch.
• My Record Collection entry featuring a short Wakhévitch review.
• Scaruffi interview with Michael Gira
  Michael Gira
  Michael Rolfe Gira is an American musician, author, and artist. He is the main force behind the recently reformed New York City musical group Swans and fronts the Angels of Light...
  
   of Swans
  Swans (band)
  Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...
  
  , in which he enthuses about the Donc box set.