Dragos Tara
Nominated for the Swiss music prize 2014
Dragos Tara studied the double bass at the Montreux and Lausanne conservatoires, followed by instrumental and electronic composition at the Geneva and Paris conservatoires.
His work derives from popular music in general (rock, folk, pop, Eastern Europe, West Africa, various forms of Asian music), experimental music in the wider sense (improvisation, alternative scenes, noise), as well as more highbrow contemporary production (György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmann, Iannis Xenakis etc.) Tara sees sound as a means of forging social bonds and the composer as a person who reinvents the way these bonds function in each situation. This often involves going beyond the bounds of the traditional concert and into the realms of physical performance, sound installation and sonic documentary – be it with professional musicians, amateurs, or those from outside the confines of his own discipline.
The collaborative process is clearly vital to his work and is maintained over long periods wherever possible.
