Ryoji Ikeda

born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan

lives and works in Paris, France, and Kyoto, Japan

Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations.

His albums ‘+/-‘(1996), ‘0°C’ (1998), ‘matrix’ (2000), ‘dataplex’ (2005), ‘test pattern’ (2008), and ‘supercodex’ (2013) pioneered a new minimal world of electronic music through his razor-sharp techniques and aesthetics. Ikeda has been working on long-term projects through audiovisual performances, and installations, and acoustic music pieces. His books and CDs are released on codex | edition, his online source established in 2018. In December 2022, codex I edition and noton (DE) releases ‘ultratronics’ his new album in the past 10 years. He is currently on tour with his new audiovisual live set, 'ultratronics,' which premiered at WWW X Shibuya and MUTEK.JP in Tokyo in 2022.

Ikeda’s acclaimed audiovisual performances ‘superposition’ premiered at the Festival d’Automne à Paris / Centre Georges Pompidou in 2012. Performers appear in Ikeda’s work for the first time as operators/ conductors/ observers/ examiners. ‘superposition’ has been performed at the Barbican Center, London (2013), Concertgebouw, Brugge (2013), Muziekgebow, Amsterdam (2013), UCLA - Center for the Arts of Performance, Los Angeles (2014), The Metropolitan Museum, New York (2014), Festival Musica, Strasbourg (2020), International Diaghilev Festival Perm (2021), and Philarmonie de Paris (2022) among others.

In 2016 Ikeda premiered the acoustic stage piece ‘music for percussion’ in collaboration with ensemble Eklekto (CH) at La Bâtie-Festival de Genève (2016). In the same year, he presented a drone symphony, ‘A [for 100 cars]’, commissioned by Red Bull Music Academy Festival Los Angeles which became the original idea for his acoustic composition. ‘100 cymbals’ commissioned by the LA Philharmonic for Fluxus Festival in 2019. Ikeda collaborated with Hiroshi Sugimoto on a commission by the Ballet de l’Opera de Paris ‘At the Hawk’s well’ (2019), and with a choreographer Pontus Lidberg for ‘Centaur’ by Danish Dance Theatre (2020). He was portrayed at Festival Musica, Strasbourg in 2020 where he premiered ‘music for percussion 2’. In 2024, Ikeda’s commissioned work ‘music for strings’ was premiered by Ensemble Modern (DE) at Muziekgebouw Amsterdam. Ikeda is currently working on commissions with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (EE).