RIP Henri Pousseur

Born in 1929 in Malmédy, Belgium, and becoming an established exponent of the Darmstadt school alongside Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, and Luciano Berio, he was one of the first to combine the serialism and structuralism typical of the era with other styles, soon followed by other colleagues.

Always interested in electronic music, he worked in studios in Cologne and Milan, where he created the historic Scambi in 1957, before founding the Brussels studio in 1958.

We met a few times, the last time in 2002 in Verona. We were at the same concert. Pousseur was presenting one of his Seize Paysages planétaires (electroacoustic music). On that occasion we spoke at length, longer than any other time. I confessed to him that his Trois Visages de Liège were among the songs that had most impressed me as a boy. He smiled.

Henri Pousseur – Trois Visages de Liège (1961)

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