Death of London experimentalist
mainThe electronics composer known as Kassia Flux, popular at new-music festivals, has died after prolonged ill health at the age of 57.
Notice of her death was posted on social media:
With great sadness I have to tell you all that Kassia passed away peacefully on March 25th. She loved music above all, and her third album was due to be released this year. I hope to make that happen. She was always, as Castaneda may have written, an impeccable warrior.
Kassia described herself as:
I’m a London-based electronic/experimental composer and performer [b.1963]. I record sounds from my surroundings, integrating them with my voice and electric violin to create concise and long-form pieces for live performance, broadcast and release. I aim to create music that liberates and oxygenates: I value originality, nuance, dynamics.
My practice is routed in Musique Concrète, as developed by Schaeffer in the 40s, and later Cage and others; aided by contemporary digital tools and technologies. I build Concrète sound libraries, which act as both an orchestra and a muse — a launch pad for composition.
Very sad story, much too young. RIP
But the video reveals something conspicuously primitive. Where are people to be liberated from through such ‘music’? From classical music, as is the intention of Helmut Lachenmann? This lady cannot help it, such trends have popped-up in the last half century as something normal and musical. And that is also a very sad story.
Your habit of criticizing the life work of the recently departed composers is reprehensible. Associates of such artists may well search for recent mentions of the person they cared about for years. Is it too much to wait a decent interval before offering your evaluations?