Else Marie Pade was present and active at the epicentres of the new music in Europe and is today considered Denmark’s most significant pioneer within electronic music and musique concrète. Yet, fully grasping the scope of her artistic work remains a work in progress.

On 31 October the book Else Marie Pade: Complete Electronic Works 1955-2012 will be released, featuring texts by composer and music researcher Jonas Olesen. The book provides the most comprehensive presentation of Pade's electronic works to date, both in sound and words.

A life's work rediscovered

Else Marie Pade started composing electronic music in the 1950s as one of the first in Denmark. 

Her works were disseminated primarily through the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, but also as music for film and theatre, as well as in concert performances. In the 1970s, however, she withdrew for personal reasons, partly as a result of experiences from the resistance movement during the German occupation. For many years, interest in her music was virtually absent – until she was ‘rediscovered’ by music researchers in 2001.

Since then, the world has come to know Else Marie Pade’s fascinating body of work through archival materials, tape reels, sketches, and notes. The effort to fully understand Pade is still a work in progress, but with the book Complete Electronic Works 1955–2012, we now have the most comprehensive overview to date of her electronic music.

Through 13 chapters, Jonas Olesen unfolds Pade's electronic works, from purely musical works to music composed for movies, theatre, commercials as well as illustrative sound tracks for radio plays. Explore both the earliest experiments from the 1950s created in the Danish Radio’s sound laboratory and the latest works from the 2000s, where Pade was collaborating with the younger generation of electronic composers.

Listen while you read

While reading you will have easy access to experience the music yourself: Through the book you will find QR codes, leading you directly to the mentioned works which can be played on streaming platforms. In the back of the book you'll find a CD with five selected works from the collection. The book includes illustrations and excerpts from Pade's handwritten scores. All texts are in both English and Danish.

The book is based on Dacapo Records' EMP Series. Since 2022 the record label has released a total of 13 albums with new digital versions of Pade's complete electronic works, including rarely and never before heard recordings.

Complete Electronic Works 1955-2012 will be released on 31 October and is available through Dacapo Records and several music and book retailers.