Interview with Steven Leak and Sequentia Legenda

I was delighted to be able to illustrate my forthcoming
album GALACTIC CRYSTALS
with the magnificent photos of Steven Leak.

MY ENCOUNTER WITH STEVEN LEAK
I invite you to discover our exchange through this interview

I'm delighted to share with you my encounter with Steven Leak, a sensitive person with a big heart, an artist to the core. I had the pleasure and privilege of using Steven's superb images to illustrate my forthcoming album GALACTIC CRYSTALS.

I invite you to discover our exchange through this interview.

Musical greetings,
Sequentia Legenda (Laurent Schieber)
🙏💎🙏

Watch the GALACTIC CRYSTALS trailer

 

DISCOVERY OF BERLIN SCHOOL MUSIC
my Mother who played an indirect but important role

Steven: When did music first „find“ you or „speak“ to you?
Describe that moment/experience.

Laurent: Music has always been part of my life, bringing me serenity, happiness and dreams. I can still clearly remember a snow globe with a traditional wind-up musical mechanism, with this pretty little ballerina dancing to the rhythm of the gentle melody. I was probably between 5 and 6 years old, so that was the first real musical experience I can remember. To my mother's credit, she enrolled me in various activities. Between the ages of 8 and 9, I had taken a few accordion lessons, but the weight and size of the instrument had been a hindrance. As for music theory, I was totally put off by it.

As far as the discovery of Berlin School music was concerned, it was once again my Mother who played an indirect but important role. I was between 15 and 16 at the time, and as I was browsing through my parents' vinyl collection, I was immediately intrigued by a particular-looking cover. It was the timeless album "Mirage" by Klaus Schulze. I fell in love with it and it triggered my musical imagination. It was literally a revelation! I had to discover these fabulous and enigmatic sound machines called synthesizers and explore this new musical universe that had just revealed itself to me.

 

Steven: How do you prepare yourself for creating music?

Laurent: To tell the truth, there's no real preparation; it's more like a call to creation that comes without really warning and draws me like a magnet to my keyboards. When this creative invitation comes to me, I savour this privileged moment and let myself go, guided towards the first experiments and improvisations. The ideas then emanate, highlighting the overall atmosphere, and the soundtrack is woven together little by little. This process is simply divine, allowing me to connect with the fertile ground of creativity, for an exploration that annihilates all proportions and time constraints. It's a real journey, allowing me to surpass myself and regenerate.

Ultimately, there are several artistic and informative ingredients, elements of a spiritual nature that support this creative phase (texts, images, sounds, the imagination, nature, the cosmos, vibrations, emotions...). With hindsight, I can say that for me, it's truly a benevolent guidance, helping and supporting me during the creative process, throughout my musical journey, in my mission to share, in my freedom of expression. Added to this is the fact that I'm a 'sensitive' and 'receptive' person. My late mother used to say to me: "If only you weren't so sensitive". Without this sensitivity, I don't think I would have been able to share my musical vision with such sincerity.

MUSIC IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF MY LIFE
it's a form of expression, a balance, a freedom of expression

Steven: What role/place does music hold/play in your life?

Laurent: Music is an essential part of my life, and has been for a long time. In fact, it's probably been salutary. It has the power to help and support me, to take me on a journey, to make me happy and free, with no time constraints. And that's what I want to share with my listeners: music that helps, regenerates and stimulates. For me, it's a form of expression, a balance, a freedom of expression. Music is a divine opportunity that I savour with great gratitude 🙏

WORKING AND PLAYING WITH ICE
and share it with others what a joy

Laurent: Can you explain your "working and playing with ice" approach?

Steven: For a few years I was painting highly detailed mandalas and mandorlas that took 100 - 150 hours each to complete. It was super satisfying work but it took so much time and I felt after a while as if I was creating iterations of something that looked somewhat similar to work I had already done.

At the same time, I had been experimenting a little bit taking pictures of ice impregnated with things like aluminum foil, food colouring, flowers etc. and the light source was candles and old flashlights.

One day I noticed that at a certain time of day, the sun would pass through a piece of stained glass that I have hanging near my front door and cast a prism across the floor. I decided to see what would happen when that colourful prism passed through a piece of ice.

I’ve been working and playing with that approach for two and a half years now. Because there are variables that I can’t control - the intensity of the light, the ice melting or breaking (I take all of my ice pictures indoors - year ‘round when light is available!), and my camera’s decisionmaking which is sometimes contrary to what I think I see, I take as many images as I can while the conditions are “right”. It is such literally “in-the-moment” art because everything changes moment-by-moment. I like that. If I can be there for that moment . . . before it is gone . . . never to return. Then share it with others . . . what a joy!!!

YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ART AND CREATIVITY
refine my availability to the creative force

 

Laurent: What is your relationship with art and creativity?

Steven: The notion of “working and playing” with creative projects has its roots in a phrase I came across years ago suggesting that “creative work is hard play”. When I am painting, creating ice art, photographing my part of the world, or creating music, I feel a focussed playfulness and then also I’m aware that as much as possible, I need to get out of the way and let whatever is happening happen, in a similar way to children’s play which is often fuelled by their imaginations. Also, art and creativity are strategies that assist me in welcoming whatever it is that needs to find me in order for it to make its way into this world and help me refine my availability to the creative force.

 

Laurent: A lot of musicians request your photographic work. I'm delighted to be able to benefit from your creative talent too. Could you perhaps explain to listeners how you feel about this new collaboration and how you feel about the music of Sequentia Legenda?

Steven: I’ve been blessed to provide artwork for musicians in many different countries. Musicians who each bring their own unique voice into this world. It’s always a real honour to be asked to provide artwork to accompany or act as a visual portal for the music. Being asked by Laurent (Sequential Legenda) to provide cover art for his latest release is a joy as I greatly admire his music.

Carefully crafted, transformative, beautiful, emotionally rich, are thoughts I have when I listen to his music. His music often brings me to remember the first time I heard Klaus Schulze’s album “Moondawn” when it first came out in 1976. I had heard nothing like it and I was simultaneously ecstatic and transformed by it. Sequentia Legenda’s music has a very similar effect on me.

Presentation: Hi! My name is Steven Leak. I am a Canadian musician, artist and photographer. I love working and playing with the creative force that flows through me. I like to find ways in which to allow that energy to find its way to this place. I experiment with sound and vision. I like those experiments to be as analogue as possible, while also being grateful for the digital technology that allows me to not only work and play with those experiments but to share them with people as well.

 

 

            

Sequentia Legenda in the Top 10 with ALCYONE

"Apart from the fact that I'm in the top ten,
it's the sharing that's most important to me.
Sharing emotion, sincerity, awareness and light.
Thank you for all your attention."
Laurent Schieber

The Schallwelle Awards ceremony

SCHALLWELLE 2023
ALCYONE in the Top 10

It gives me great pleasure to share with you this wonderful news from the Schallwelle Awards voting: ALCYONE is in the Top 10 in the "Best International Album" category. Thank you for your trust and support. It's a great pleasure to be able to share my musical vision with you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to announce the forthcoming release of my album GALACTIC CRYSTALS, scheduled for 2 July 2024, as well as my next live performance with Tommy Betzler in the Netherlands on 20 April.

🎹🙏🎹 I send you my warmest musical greetings,
Laurent Schieber (Sequentia Legenda)

 

GALACTIC CRYSTALS
Official release on 2 july 2024

I'm planning to release GALACTIC CRYSTALS on 2 July (my late mother's birthday). It's a gateway to a new dimension, an invitation to travel, where everyone is free to interpret my universe according to their own feelings and give free rein to their imagination. An opening of the heart, a musical sharing, a vibratory union, a subtle connection to open up to the intangible. Tommy Betzler will take part in the second piece.

📽️ CRYSTAL OF LIGHT (Work in Progress) Trailer
📽️ RETURN TO MESHALEA (Work in Progress) Trailer

SEQUENTIA LEGENDA ON STAGE
First rehearsals with Tommy Betzler

Tommy and I are delighted to be performing together again. Our next concert is scheduled for 20 April in the Netherlands. We'll be playing three songs for a shared passion: The Berlin School. Meeting the public is a special moment and we look forward to seeing you again. We hope to see you soon.

📽️ Facebook Reels 1 and 2

 

            

CELESTIAL under the magnifying glass of Bertrand Loreau

A look back at my 2021 album CELESTIAL,
with Bertrand Loreau's questions
which I had the pleasure of answering

Sequentia Legenda's CELESTIAL album, released in 2021

A SPONTANEOUS STATE OF GRACE
The start of a new, exciting and creative experience

Bertrand Loreau : Since the release of your first album, you've claimed to make music that expresses your deepest sensibility. Do you need to be in a particular state to compose and come up with the framework for a new album?

Sequentia Legenda : I need to feel this call, this excitement that guides me forcefully to my keyboards, like a magnet. It's a spontaneous state of grace, a very special and magical moment that I sometimes find hard to understand and explain. In any case, this is how my heart can truly express itself, releasing all my energy, all my sensitivity, all my deepest emotions. It's the start of a new, exciting and creative experience, full of surprises and challenges.

Work session for the title Symphonic Dawn of the Stars

Bertrand Loreau : Do you ever know in advance, before you play, what direction you're going to take on a new album?

Sequentia Legenda : To be honest: not really. I'd rather say that I have a global perspective, which can come from a title idea, a sound, an image, an emotion. As explained above, it's an unpredictable experience, a new adventure, an enrichment. It's one more step on the exciting musical path I've been offered to take.

Bertrand Loreau : Do you think your music is aimed at a particular audience?

Sequentia Legenda : I think my music is aimed at listeners who want to give themselves time to travel, to immerse themselves, to relax and who are willing to let go in order to let themselves go completely.

 

Sequentia Legenda's CELESTIAL album, released in 2021

ESCAPE, DREAM OF UNKNOWN WORLDS
Music is good for the Soul, a medicine for well-being

 
Bertrand Loreau : At the end of your presentation you mention Hope and Love; would you like to elaborate on what kind of hope and love you're talking about?

Sequentia Legenda : The two go hand in hand - I think. Some listeners tell me that they rediscover many hidden subtleties as they listen. Others tell me that they can escape, dream of unknown worlds and give free rein to their imagination. I've even had the pleasure of hearing people say that my music is good for the soul, a medicine for well-being, and that delights me to no end. It's wonderful to be able to share, and if my music can also help, or even heal, then it's nothing but happiness. 

 

Bertrand Loreau : In your presentation of "CELESTIAL" you talk about the instruments you use. Do the instruments you use have a big influence on the way you design an album?

Sequentia Legenda : Instruments are not the priority. They make up my sound palette, that's obvious. But the most important thing is the heart, the soul. My music is the total expression of my sensibility, and so it is this that will influence the design. The choice of instruments will be made instinctively in accordance with the creative and inspirational influence of the moment.

 

Bertrand Loreau : You claim to be attached to the Berlin School, but do you think this musical genre can still evolve or surprise?

 

Sequentia Legenda : Yes, I believe in this great musical movement.
I remain convinced that it has not finished making us dream and surprising us. In my opinion, evolution is subjective, and there are still things to invent and avenues to explore. One thing is certain: we ALL have a great need for freedom, and Berlin School is the perfect invitation to free ourselves and take a beautiful, immersive journey in sound.

CELESTIAL – ENTRANCE INTO A NEW HORIZON

Bertrand Loreau : Do you have any idea what kind of music you'll be making in five or ten years' time?

 

Sequentia Legenda : No, not at all, and so much the better for that. I'm letting myself be surprised, and we'll see what the future holds. I hope I still have enough to express musically.


Bertrand Loreau : Your presentation suggests a certain mystical sensitivity. Do you think that those who enjoy your music have that in common with you?

 

Sequentia Legenda : Yes, indeed, it's possible. My sound worlds are imbued with nostalgia, mysticism and hope too. These different components speak to listeners, they resonate with them, that's the feedback I've heard.
 

Sequentia Legenda (Laurent Schieber)

ABOUT HOPE FOR A BETTER, MORE HUMANE WORLD
Music is a vector of Hope and Love

Bertrand Loreau : At the end of your presentation you mention Hope and Love; would you like to elaborate on what kind of hope and love you're talking about?

Sequentia Legenda : I'm talking about hope for a better, more humane world. The expression of a Love that knows no borders, that is timeless and true. Through my music and the Berlin School, I am asserting my resistance to the dark side that is projected onto humanity. Music is one of the divine means offered to me to share this Love and Hope with humility and sincerity. I'm delighted to be able to help people in my own way and thus contribute to a little happiness, a little dream and a little freedom - a freedom that's so necessary right now. I think we all need to get out of this hellish spiral imposed on humanity, and music is a vector of Hope and Love.

Thank you Bertrand for your attention and for your questions, which I was delighted to answer. I should also add that this album and the others in my discography are also available from Patch Work Music.

 

Bertrand Loreau in the Keyboards Magazine

 

Bertrand Loreau has been recording albums for the Musea and Spheric Music labels for almost 30 years, and has covered a wide range of styles, from melodic music to electroacoustic music and the Berlin School.

Bertrand Loreau's discography on Patch Work Music

I invite you to read this article dedicated to Patch Work Music (PWM)

To CELESTIAL

 

            

💫Departure for a Celestial Voyage💫 un hommage à ma Maman

💫Departure for a Celestial Voyage💫
est un hommage à ma Maman,
décédée le 4 novembre 2022
pour un Univers de Lumière et de Paix.

UN HOMMAGE À MA MAMAN
Partage de cœur à cœur à travers les dimensions

Il y a quelques jours, j’ai ressenti la demande de ma Maman, et j’ai composé un titre pour Elle. Cela fait un an qu’elle est partie pour son voyage céleste le 4 novembre🙏 et je partage avec vous Departure for a Celestial Voyage, disponible ici, ainsi que le clip vidéo, visible ici.

Depuis son départ, je la ressens.
J’ai perçu 8 jours avant cette date commémorative sa demande :
« Tu ne veux pas composer un titre pour moi ? ». Spontanément, j'ai eu l'idée de faire une extraction du final de « CRYSTAL OF LIGHT », c'est-à-dire le deuxième titre de mon prochain album.

Car en travaillant sur la partie finale de cette composition, il s’était produit une surprise technique et musicale assez déroutante que j’ai rapidement associé à une nouvelle guidance.

Certains éléments seront présents dans la version pour l’album « GALACTIC CRYSTALS » prévue pour 2024 et d’autres ont été retravaillés ou ont été ajoutés tous spécialement pour cette version.

Subjectivement, la valeur la plus importante de ma musique n’est pas ce que vous pouvez entendre en l’écoutant, mais ce que vous percevez se manifester dans votre cœur. D’ailleurs, si l’on écoute attentivement, on peut discerner dans la seconde moitié de cette composition un son subtil qui s’apparente aux battements du cœur.

Departure for a Celestial Voyage : C’est un lien direct vers un monde empreint de spiritualité, une porte d’entrée vers un monde céleste.

Je vous souhaite à tous un bon voyage.

📽️ Voir le trailer

Je vous souhaite le plus agréable des voyages🙏
Laurent Schieber (Sequentia Legenda

Departure for a Celestial Voyage

 

GALACTIC CRYSTALS
voyager là où tout le monde est libre

J’ai le plaisir de partager avec vous la bande-annonce du deuxième titre de mon prochain album, dans sa version de travail. Voici un avant-goût de l’ambiance musicale de GALACTIC CRYSTALS, mon prochain album, prévu pour mi-2024. Pour moi, la musique constitue une mission de partage, une invitation au voyage où chacun est libre d’interpréter mon univers selon son propre ressenti et de laisser libre cours à son imagination.

 

Entrez en résonance avec CRYSTAL OF LIGHT pour une quête vibratoire vers la paix profonde 🙏💎🙏

PLANETARIUM CENTURY
Le son des étoiles

J’ai le plaisir de partager avec vous le projet Planetarium Century, pour lequel j’ai eu le privilège de collaborer avec deux autres musiciens, Jean-Luc Briançon et Emmanuel Quenneville.

3 musiciens, un mouvement : La Berlin School et la musique cosmique sous les feux de la rampe.

Planetarium Century

LA MISSION D’ALCYONE EST D’ÊTRE UNE INVITATION
pour se mettre en harmonie avec la Lumière

La mission d’ALCYONE se veut d’être une invitation pour se mettre en harmonie avec la Lumière, se revisiter, aller au fond de soi, se recentrer, lâcher prise en suivant son cœur, afin d’entamer un voyage initiatique guidé par une vibration douce et bienveillante. C’est l’illumination d’une énergie source de vie, qui anime nos sentiments et nos pensées, pour une élévation vers un monde serein, lumineux et baigné par un amour inconditionnel.

Pour moi, ALCYONE, c’est tout cela, c’est bien plus que de la musique, c’est un partage de cœur à cœur, une communion, une prière dédiée à la Lumière.

ALCYONE

To the English version of the article

 

            

Patch Work Music from yesterday to today

The basic idea or concept behind PWM
could be summed up in one word: "Together".
Bertrand Loreau

A dedication from Klaus Schulze for GAMEA

PWM ITS ORIGINS, ITS PATH, ITS EVOLUTION
To understand the history of PWM,
you have to go back to the 70s

Sequentia Legenda : Can you tell us about the origins of Patch Work Musique? Its origins, its path, its evolution?

Bertrand Loreau : To understand the history of Patch Work Music (PWM), you have to go back to the 70s, when there was an association called les amis de Klaus Schulze, then GAMEA. This association brought together fans of the composer of Timewind, but not only. Christian Piednoir, Jean-Christophe Allier, Dominique Daviot and myself were active members of GAMEA (Groupe d'Animation Musicale Electronique d'Avenir).

GAMEA had had contacts with Klaus Schulze, thanks in particular to Pascal Bouchez, who was invited to Germany, with Klaus Dieter Mueller too, and finally with the Innovative Communication label. So in the early 80s I took it upon myself to import records from the IC label, created by Klaus Schulze, like the first Robert Schroeder records. In '82 or '83, this group of around 70 enthusiasts was struggling a bit, probably because we were young, students or people just starting out in the world of work, and we didn't have a lot of resources to organise or create projects. You have to remember what the world was like before the Internet: everything we could envisage doing involved exchanges by post and only, in extreme cases, by telephone, because communications outside the department were very expensive. It was still the early 80s when two members of GAMEA, Christian Jacob and Serge Leroy, wanted to create a new association that would develop GAMEA's activities with new ambitions. The creation of this new association was encouraged by the GAMEA board and its members were encouraged to join the new association: Crystal Lake. GAMEA was then dissolved. Olivier Briand, Lionel Palierne, Jean-Christophe, Christophe Martin, Michel Boegler, myself and others joined Crystal Lake and some of us even took part in a trip with Crystal Lake to Sheffield in 1985, to experience the UK Electronica electronic music festival, which enabled us to see or meet people like Mark Jenkins, Manuel Gottsching, Harald Grosskopf, Michel Huyen, Ian Boddy and Steve Joliffe.

You may also remember that musicians, including myself, who had been part of GAMEA, performed at a concert-festival in Chatenay Malabry, a day of electronic music organised by Crystal Lake, which introduced many people to the group Lightwave.

Bertrand Loreau - Chatenay Malabry concert 1985

In 1986, former GAMEA members and Crystal Lake members met up again at the Tangerine Dream concert at the Olympia, organised by the Parisian association, and had the chance to meet Edgar Froese, Chris Franke and Paul Haslinger.

It became clear after the Tangerine Dream concert that it marked the end of an era. Crystal Lake was developing its links with the Paris region, opening up more and more to new-age music, ambient, etc. and supporting the experimental music of Lightwave. Crystal Lake was gradually distancing itself from the fundamentals that people like Olivier Briand, Jean-Christophe and I were so keen on, and was increasingly favouring a fairly intellectual approach to electronic music which, in my opinion, was inappropriate for music that remains fundamentally simple, even when it is of high quality. Meanwhile, the passion for the synthesiser was still very much alive in the 80s in Nantes, and it was obvious that this effervescence would provoke initiatives. The first to take action was Nicolas Moreau, who decided to create the Association Pour La Recherche Musicale (A.P.R.M.). Nicolas, who was a musician as well as an engineer by training, had the idea of trying to bring together musicians from the world of classical music and that of the synthesiser, so that ideas for the invention of new instruments could be born. I have a vague recollection of a meeting with Christian Villeneuve, a composer and teacher at the Conservatoire.The A.P.R.M. organised an electronic music festival with concerts and an instrument showroom. (The Synthfest concept had already been invented.) Jean-Philippe Rykiel was invited to play, as were the groups Olaf Potorose (with Nicolas Moreau), Noa (with Christophe Poisson at EMS AKS), Krill (Lionel and Bertrand) and Didier Bocquet, who had released his first album. The festival, entitled 'Synthés Folie', was unique in that it took place over the course of an entire week, in several of Nantes' concert halls and in several of the city's districts. The Association Musique et Technologie (A.M.T.) was born a few months later with simpler ambitions, such as producing a fanzine and organising electronic music concerts. It published the journal AME and organised a concert day featuring a number of local personalities, including Christophe Martin de Montagu and his group Kito, Olivier Briand and his trio Synthax Error, and others. A.M.T. had a relatively short life, and the early 90s were characterised by a certain passivity on the part of Nantes' synthesiser enthusiasts. Olivier Briand and I had started producing records, notably with the MUSEA label, and we were probably concentrating a bit on ourselves. But something clicked when I read an article one day in 1994 or 1995 which tended to play down what Klaus Schulze had contributed to electronic music, and I rushed to Olivier Briand and told him: I rushed to Olivier Briand and told him: "I think we need to re-establish certain truths and to do that we need to recreate an association that will reaffirm the importance that Klaus Schulze has always had in electronic music, and which will say that he is the symbol of authenticity that inspires people of our generation of musicians. ". At the time, our friend Olivier Bégué was publishing the fanzine Rubycon, but in 1995 Olivier Briand and I agreed that the project of our new association would be a little different, promoting French productions as much as possible, without denying the influence of the real pioneers in the field of synthesizers.

Patch Work Music (PWM) was born and, in order to realise its ambitions, quickly set to work on a compilation album to affirm its project to promote French music. The association devoted a lot of energy to writing and distributing a high-quality fanzine: KS mag. The letters "KS" were a reference to Schulze, but also to "Keyboards and Sequencers".

Two years later, PWM had, unfortunately, fallen asleep. It was more than ten years before Olivier Briand, standing in my garden, told me he wanted PWM to wake up. His idea was for a website to sell our music online. Olivier was convinced that we had to take advantage of the new ways of consuming music, by making mp3 files available on the internet. Tired, or disillusioned with the work of the association, I eventually decided to follow Olivier in his project. I was going through a period of loss of musical inspiration and I thought that, after all, getting involved with and for others would give me the desire to create again. In the winter of 2009, I decided to invite a dozen or so musicians and friends to a meeting in August to validate the decision to create the PWM-Distrib website. We were counting on Samuel Vallé, musician and IT specialist, to build the site. Almost all the artists present agreed to share the cost of creating the site.

Olivier Briand - Synthfest 2012 in Nantes

The rest is history, with another milestone reached when PWM entrusted a complete overhaul of the site to David Perbal, also a musician and IT specialist. Patch Work Music also got back to producing newspapers. We created Minimag, La Lettre de Musique, Le Calepin, and the newspapers we know today. Synthfest is undoubtedly the culmination of a history of electronic music fan associations that began in the 70s, and which saw Klaus Schulze as the best representative of a certain conception of electronic music. However, while some people now see the festival as a celebration of electronic instruments, when I had the idea and laid the foundations for its organisation, the aim was for it to be a showcase for Patch Work Music, while also playing an educational and cultural role. When Olivier wanted the festival to be accompanied by concerts, we shared the idea that the festival should offer a stage to musicians who don't find many elsewhere. Today, the festival has taken a different direction, perhaps a necessary one, but its ambition is no longer the one we set out to achieve.

Synthfest 2016 in Nantes

PWM TODAY, ITS PHILOSOPHY, HOW IT WORKS
PWM could be summed up in one word: "Together"

Sequentia Legenda : Can you describe PWM today, its philosophy and how it works?

Bertrand Loreau : The basic idea or concept of PWM could be summed up in the word "Together". PWM would have no reason to exist if its project wasn't to bring together people who enjoy doing something together. Some people may think in terms of numbers: how many records do you sell? But is that what matters? I think the most important thing is to find in the association the listening, the desire, the sharing of emotions. The most important thing is not the figures, but the quality of the exchanges and the emulation that can come out of it. I often think that we can draw a parallel with what the Impressionist painters experienced at the beginning of the XXᵉ century. Founders of a school, they met, motivated each other together, I think. Was the most important thing for these painters to become celebrities or to advance their art?

Valentin at Synthfest 2017 in Nantes

WHAT COULD BE THE PWM OF THE FUTURE
Still looking ahead to great things

Sequentia Legenda : How do you see the association developing, its future, and what could the PWM of the future look like?

Bertrand Loreau : I think that Patch Work Music has done some great things, particularly with its publications, Synthfest, compilation albums and by supporting musicians to get them into international catalogues. While remaining attached to the physical record, I now believe that we need to diversify the means of staying in touch with fans of progressive electronic music so as not to disappear into the mass of available means of information. At the same time, however, I've always thought that it would be a mistake to try to please the many, at any price, by any means. I think that PWM will continue to exist if people feel that by going to PWM they are finding a certain kind of music and people who form a small community that defends a 'certain' kind of electronic music and certain values, such as the belief that nothing can replace the record that you take the time to discover.

I think that PWM will increasingly need to bring together musicians who are collectively involved in projects. Trying to adapt to current tastes by opening up to different genres would be the surest way of drowning in a plethora of offerings. On the other hand, I think we need to move beyond the idea that the common denominator between PWM musicians is the use of the synthesiser. Without going so far as to promote acoustic music, we can see that a musician who plays the piano is sometimes closer to the spirit of PWM than many people who play the modular synthesiser or the drum machine. For many people, electronic instruments have become toys. Playing electronic music is as much fun as playing tennis or Playstation.

At the moment I have an idea to create a PWM label, which would be a collaborative label. The idea would be to take the association's philosophy further. Perhaps PWM should also defend its identity - that of French progressive electronic music - by publishing works that go a bit further than a fanzine.

To conclude: I hope that others like myself will be leaders and manage projects. Motivation wears thin. Patch Work Music may come to an end tomorrow and its balance sheet will still be very positive, but it can still look forward to great things. You have to realise that anything that doesn't move forward, that doesn't take risks, that doesn't unite people around objectives is almost certain to disappear.

Sequentia Legenda : On behalf of all the musicians, I'd like to thank you very much for all the attention and energy you've shown, and for everything you've done for PWM.

(To the French version : https://sequentia-legenda.blogspot.com/2023/12/patch-work-music-dhier-aujourdhui.html)

To PWM