Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023), featured in 2017 at Radio France's Festival Présences of contemporary music, was a central figure in a generation of internationally renowned Finnish composers and performers.

Kaija Saariaho developed computer-assisted composition techniques and mastered working with tape and live electronics, but she also encountered French composers of so-called spectral music, whose techniques are based on computer analysis of the sound spectrum of individual notes on different instruments.

In the profusion of works that Saariaho has produced in recent years, two features have marked her entire career. One is the close collaboration with other artists – writers, directors, musicians, etc. – in the creation of new works. The other is the concern to make her music, not the treatment of an abstract process, but an urgent sharing of ideas, images and emotions from the composer to the listener.

This collection is the recording echo of the Festival Présences (created in 1991) and its commissioning and creation activities, supported by Radio France's musical ensembles.