Born in Paris, France on May 12, 1947, Ghédalia Tazartès was an experimental musician best known for his expertise at tape manipulation and sound collages. Over the course of his career, he composed audio works for theater, dance, and films. Generally classified under the musique concrete genre, his back catalog consists of nearly 20 albums including his 1979 debut album Diasporas, as well as Tazartés’ Transports (1980), Tazartès (1987), and Jeanne (2007). His lengthy musical pieces were assembled from field tape recordings that captured the sounds of everyday life, short bits of dialog, music, or poetry. He would use these sound collages for his own albums as well contemporary ballets – Tabula Rasa (1980) and Les Portes d’Italie (1981) – and plays. Tazartès composed/constructed music for films including Moi Ivan, toi Abraham (1993) and Court toujours: I’Inconnu (1996). Over the course of his musical career, he collaborated with artists such as David Fenech and Jac Berrocal (2011’s Superdisque) and Bruno Letort (2014’s Semelles de Vent). A box set of Tazartès’ early recordings – Works 1977-79 – was released in 2011. Four years later, Les Danseurs de la Pluie, another box set of his recordings was released. Ghédalia Tazartès died of cancer on February 9, 2021. He was 73 years old.
