Charlemagne Palestine

A pioneer of minimalist music and avant-garde performance, Charlemagne Palestine has spent decades crafting immersive soundscapes that defy convention. Known for his deeply ritualistic approach to composition, Palestine’s works often utilize drones, overtones, and layered harmonic textures to create transcendent listening experiences. His influence spans across multiple disciplines, cementing his place as one of the most significant figures in experimental music.

Featured releases

The piece develops while complex layerings of chords and musical sentiments shift in and out of focus, yet all take center stage all the time. Ending the piece, Palestine excitedly shouts out that the organ is still the best synthesizer ever made. In typical Palestine fashion, his performance made the whole church resonate, an effect that can be repeated easily when listening at home, because this record demands volume and lots of it. Brooklyn-born Charlemagne Palestinehas long been hailed as one of the originators of modern minimalist and experimental music. He very firmly describes his music as maximalist. His immense body of work features many solo albums, collaborations, performance-driven video works and much more. In his work in performance, music, video and related media since the late 1960s, he uses certain emblematic objects such as teddy bears, cognac and scarves. They serve as signatures, he calls them symbols of identification."