👍ETHEREAL in the Top Ten at the Schallwelle Awards

ETHEREAL in the homeland of Berliner Schule

Let's go on the road!

It was important to have my loved ones by my side and to be able to share this moment with them. My wife and my youngest son took part in this expedition to the Ruhr. My little car and its 300,000 kilometers have brought us to a successful destination. After travelling a little over 600 kilometres, we arrived at the Rohrmeisterei complex. Tommy&Anke Betzler took us in. The hall was beautifully decorated and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sylvia Sommerfeld, Alfred Arnold and all of the the Schallwende team for their devotion to the electronic music and the perfect organization of this ceremony.

All united by the passion for electronic music

I quote Tommy Betzler (Klaus Schulze drummer in the 80s) speaking to me at the beginning of the evening:
"And here we are all here once again, it's kind of like a big family coming together, all united by the passion for electronic music."

The people present came from all over the place, from Germany of course, but also from the Netherlands, Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and France.

Thorsten Quaeschning (Tangerine Dream), Ron Boots (Groove Unlimited) and his wife Monike, Lambert Ringlage (spheric music), Frank Gerber (electronic circus), Thomas Voogd, Matthias Stock and his son Ansgars to name a few.
I confess that deep down, I had hoped to eventually meet my mentor Klaus Schulze...
But it's only a remitted part.

Thanks to Alfred Arnold for the availability of the official artwork

The nomination of ETHEREAL

It is finally in the Top Ten of the category "Best Albums"
that my ETHEREAL album was nominated. 
For this new edition, the organizers had decided to group the International and German albums in one and the same category. The competition was therefore greater than the previous year. I was told there were over 300 candidates.

I'm naturally proud to be able to appear alongside Tangerine Dream,
Johannes Schmoelling and Mike Oldfield.

I am delighted to know that my music is appreciated and recognized in Germany,
the country of the Berliner Schule.

Thank you all for your support.

Schallwelle Awards February 17th, 2018

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wife who gave me the necessary impetus to officially launch myself into music and live my dream. It is indeed an honour for me to be recognized in Germany, the country of Klaus Schulze and of the regretted Edgar Froese, the homeland of cosmic music, of the Berliner Schule. I would also like to thank Tommy Betzler for agreeing to collaborate a second time on this opus. And finally, a big thank you to all of you, musicians, friends and listeners for your support that gives me the strength to move forward in this direction, the way of an extended vision of the Berlin School.

RENAISSANCE in the starting-blocks

After ETHEREAL and this great success at the Schallwelle, the work continues and the next musical opus is in the starting-blocks. It is about RENAISSANCE, the official release of which is announced for May 17th (my wife's birthday, a little wink for her).

This album will contain 3 tracks, 3 different music universes, 3 discoveries for listeners.
The sound grain will be in the purest tradition of the analogue era. I'll let you discover the first extract. More information is available on the landing page of RENAISSANCE.



RENAISSANCE: Explore the Sound Universe

RENAISSANCE Landingpage

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com

🎼 The sequencer my favorite tool 📶

My vision of sequencing: loops in perpetual evolution

My first sequencer was the Korg SQ-10

I had made its acquisition during a trip to Paris may be some time after I bought the
Korg MS-20. The two "brothers" lived together for my greatest happiness in my home studio in my parents' basement. Together with the tape echo chamber RE201 Roland, I made my debut by developing my sequences. The setting up of the loops with the SQ-10 was really complete and intuitive. For example, it was interesting to modulate filters and envelopes by generating three different voltages at the same time. The 3 channels, the 12 steps and the 6 modes were for the time a beautiful technical prowess that I could enjoy.

Oberheim's mini sequencer

Another instrument, the Oberheim Two Voice had a mini sequencer. Despite its eight programming steps available, the mini sequencer was convenient and pleasant for a fast search of small sequential lines.

TVS1, the official model name of the 1974/75 Oberheim 2 voice or OB2 / ob-2 (obie two)

Here too, the association of the Oberheim with the echo chamber RE201 Roland made the result convincing and interesting.

Today, I work with virtual instruments

VST's allow me to express myself completely and freely. Sometimes I use various sources to create my loops, such for example as the Moog Modular sequencer from Arturia.

The sequences come to life

In addition to the search for tones, I attach great importance to the symbiosis of the different sequential loops. I particularly like to make them live and grow all along a track to make them sometimes even "organic". The complementarity of the sequences is also an element that is particularly close to my heart.

The sequences can be used as a structure and/or as the main and/or secondary
melodic line.

As far as the creation itself is concerned, it can do this by working on the parameters and potentiometers of a sequencer, or after having plated some pads chords that evoke my creativity and thus favour the realization of a loop, the reverse is also possible. I have also created note by note a sequence.

👦 I remember an anecdote when I was 16-17 years old and a sequence came to mind. I had phoned home, my youngest sister took the handset and asked her to take our tape recorder to record me. I then sang the loop of notes to save it on the cassette so that I could in the evening work on my analogue instruments of the time. 📼

  

The sequences can be fast or slow, shiny or deep, come and go, random, pizzicato or legato. They can also metamorphose, literally play the role of drums and be percussive. They are the fundamentals of my music. Whether it is with the instruments of yesteryear or today, I still have so much pleasure in sculpting and modelling loops. For me, the synthesizer and sequencer are inseparable.

  My vision of sequencing: loops in perpetual evolution

Berlin School pioneers Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream

In terms of reference, I would like to quote the Berlin School pioneers Klaus Schulze and the mythical band Tangerine Dream. I keep in mind my first listenings of the Mirage album with absolutely remarkable and timeless sequences. Crystal Lake obviously will remain for me a key moment in my musical approach, however I would like to point out that in the title Velvet Voyage, which is in my eyes more aerial, more cosmic, hides one of the most sumptuous sequences, so simple and so strong in terms of emotion. Congratulations!

For Tangerine Dream are the Rubycon and Ricochet albums that had marked me with their sequences with their characteristic timbre.

Testimonial Yves Blanc (La Planète Bleue)

«Most of the spacey music is made of three components : synth pads, sequencer loops and (sometimes annoying) solos. Sequentia Legenda is intelligent and sensitive enough to create his - strictly instrumental - music with the first two components only:
the pads and the loops.»
 

Laurent Schieber (Sequentia Legenda) and Yves Blanc (La Planète Bleue)

«In his spacey compositions, where light meets minimalism, and fitted to dream and meditation, there is no room for flashy solo, no room for protruding showing-off,
instead the space is filled with highly sophisticated pads, perpetually changing and loops, themselves shaped in ever-changing patterns, sometimes highly complex,
even if they often seem obvious.»

Yves Blanc (La Planète Bleue)

👍ETHEREAL in the Top Ten at the Schallwelle Awards

It is an honour for me to be able to appear alongside Tangerine Dream,
Johannes Schmoelling and Mike Oldfield in this ranking.
I am delighted to know that my music is appreciated and recognized in Germany,
the country of the Berliner Schule.
[...]

More info here

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com

ETHEREAL: expert's point of view 🔍

A selection of four reviews

💡My fourth album under the spotlight💡

ETHEREAL - Sequentia Legenda's fourth album.

In addition to the fact that it is pleasant to read the reviewers' papers,
it is important to know how my music is perceived, 
how it feels, what the listener feels when discovering my sound landscape. 

Some analyses are very interesting and I have sometimes even found myself rediscovering my music through reading.
On the other hand, others give me ideas, trails and sometimes also sources of inspiration and reflection.

Here are some excerpts of my choice that I wanted to comment on.

I wish you a pleasant reading,
Laurent Schieber (Sequentia Legenda)

Richard Gürtler Dec 29, 2017, Bratislava, Slovakia

 Richard Gürtler: 
"Elevation, at 20:34 the third and closing opus, invites the listener into unmapped domains, where Sequentia Legenda with nebulously barren drone hums unlocks the gates to the void. Amalgamating a display of thrillingly oracular hues with lighter, artificially spellbinding pulsations and calmly ascending, but persistently magnified sequencer and drum sparkles. Ominous depths, never before reached by Sequentia Legenda are meticulously illuminated by perpetually shimmering and predictably sustained insignias. Wow, this final track was certainly beyond the ordinary Berlin-School endeavor!!!
[...]
70 minutes long "Ethereal" is another highly accomplished album by Sequentia Legenda and especially its third chapter showcases the more distinguishing approach in carving profoundly enigmatic, yet insistently sequencer-driven vintage-futuristic electronica.
[...]
Laurent, keep on excelling!!! And by the way, the next album "Renaissance" is scheduled for May 17th, 2018, so definitely stay connected!!!" 

Richard Gürtler Dec 29, 2017, Bratislava, Slovakia

 Sequentia Legenda:
"Elevation, is indeed an original sound universe that I propose to my listeners, a different way of composing my music, a different use of sequencers, it's a new musical journey.

The global atmosphere of this title is oriented towards the ambient, the long evolutionary pads contribute to an opening towards to a wide sound and cosmic panorama.

From a technical point of view, I used reverberation extensively, in order to obtain a great width and depth sound, to shape a soundtrack favourable to immersion and meditation, allowing the notes to disperse in space. The Formant filter has been used to give a special touch and grain to this floating raster.

The sound texture in perpetual evolution is an invitation for the listener to discover and visualize a fragment of the cosmos, it's an immersive and astral invitation, it's a take-off to space, it's touching the stars and going very far.

📡Elevation is a title to elevate itself high." 

Sequentia Legenda on 28 January 2018

Read the full review

Drew Fisher Jan 23, 2018, Avalanche, United States

 Drew Fisher: 
"Laurent Schieber has done it again! Just when you think the Berlin School sound has been played out, Laurent releases something new that just keeps upping the ante! 
The second of these three epics of progressive electronic music may be my favorite Berlin School song ever made!
[...]
"Around the Second Moon" (22:45) opens with some very interesting slowly sliding note "arpeggi" beneath which some sequential percussion/bass lines try to establish themselves. As the treble sounds thin and disappear, the "bubbling," "squirting" sequencer lines become more interesting, hypnotic, captivating, and then foundational, even melody holders. In the fourth minute, they are the only music placeholders before some synth washes sneak in from behind. The chord choices of the synths add so much to enhance the sequencing. It's not until the middle of the seventh minute that the first percussive sound arrives and begins to elbow its way into the mix. By now the bass and synth lines have wormed their way into your subconscious in a kind of Edgar Alan Poe way while syncopated, intermittent percussives make it sound like Madeline Usher trying to break out of her casket in the basement. This is SO COOOL!!!
[...]
Were I more familiar with Klaus Schulze's work of the second half of the 1970s I might find more to compare and critique, but, as is, I can only find praise. The clarity and fullness of modern sound is so pleasant and fulfilling to the ear and soul than the often thin and scratchy stuff of recordings from the 70s that, as with the Master's 2007 release, Kontinuum, I am filled with only praise and joy.

Five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music and one of the 
21st Century's shining examples of stellar Berlin School revitalization." 

Drew Fisher Jan 23, 2018, Avalanche, United States

 Sequentia Legenda:
"Personally, I think the Berlin School still has a bright future ahead of it. This musical movement allows me to express myself, to release my emotions, to share a part of me with the public, to live my passion.

I have my own vision, that of an extended version of the Berlin School, a vision of sequencing. It is an honour to be able to contribute my contribution to this musical edifice and thus to contribute to its continuity.

I had the privilege of collaborating with artists specialized in this movement such as Kurtz Mindfields (Jean-Luc Briançon) and the emblematic drummer Tommy Betzler who played with Klaus Schulze in the 80s. 

Regarding the track "Around the Second Moon" it's a track where Tommy Betzler agreed to participate, he put all his experience in the profile of this composition with a lot of brilliance. Hearing that it's one of the best tracks in the Berlin School fills me with pride and happiness, which I am happy to share this with Tommy. 

Finally, if I can "revitalize" the Berlin School, as Drew Fisher so aptly put it in his article, then I will be proud and delighted. I'd like to add: "Long live to Berlin School!" 

Sequentia Legenda on 31 January 2018

Read the full review

Thoralf Koß Oct 19, 2017, Riesa, Germany

 Thoralf Koß:
"Laurent Schieber bezeichnet seine Kompositionen als „‘ernst‘ mit einem Hauch von Nostalgie“ und bringt auf diese Weise die Stimmung hinter „Ethereal“ auf den Punkt. Elektronische Klassik der 70er-Jahre also – oder einfach nur Berliner Schule pur. Hinzu kommt die angenehm warme, sehr voluminöse Produktion des Albums, die bei einer entsprechenden Lautstärke und einer guten Anlage den ganzen Raum zu einer Art Universum werden lässt, durch das man bei „Stratums Of Seraphic Voices“ einerseits wie durch die Milchstraße schwebt, sich aber auch erste „Body Love“-Fantasien entfalten.
[...]
FAZIT: Ach ja, warum nur kommt einem immer wieder dieser KLAUS SCHULZE in den Sinn, wenn man SEQUENTIA LEGENDA hört? Die Antwort ist ganz einfach: Weil Laurent Schieber sich nicht nur Schulzes frühe Musik verinnerlicht hat, sondern auch dazu in der Lage ist, sie auf gänzlich gleichem Niveau und mit einem ähnlichen Instrumentarium, wie es auch Schulze verwendete, wiederzugeben. Das Schieber-Schulze-Gen funktioniert bestens. 
„Ethereal“ = Elektronische Musik für Berliner-Schule-Nostalgiker." 

in English:

"Laurent Schieber describes his compositions as "serious" with a touch of nostalgia"and in this way sums up the mood behind" Ethereal ". Electronic classics of the 70s - or simply pure Berlin school. Add to this the pleasantly warm, very voluminous production of the album, which, with the appropriate volume and a good system, turns the whole room into a kind of universe, which on the one hand makes you float through the Milky Way, but on the other hand allows you to unfold your first „Body Love“ fantasies with "Stratums Of Seraphic Voices".
[...]
CONCLUSION: Oh yes, why does this KLAUS SCHULZE keep coming to mind when you hear SEQUENTIA LEGENDA? The answer is quite simple: because Laurent Schieber has not only internalized Schulze's early music, but is also able to reproduce it at the same level and with a similar set of instruments as Schulze used. The Schieber-Schulze gene works perfectly. 

„Ethereal“ = Electronic music for Berlin school nostalgics." 

Thoralf Koß Oct 19, 2017, Riesa, Germany

 Sequentia Legenda:
"The German rigour is in me, it is most certainly due to my status as a cross-border man, to the fact that professionally I spent more time in Germany than in France. The adage "weniger ist mehr" which can be translated as "Less is more" reflects my personality, my musical vision. By the definition of "serious", musically speaking, 
I mean: no superfluous. 

I try to do as much as possible with the simplest possible configuration, I don't try to work with a record number of tracks, I don't try at all cost to "furnish" my compositions with solos or effects. 

My music is serious, yes, she is also nostalgic, but without falling into sadness in order to allow the listener to escape in the best possible conditions. 

Other than the fact that my music can be categorized as minimalist music, it is important for me to bring the sound elements to life, to make them grow throughout the title, to highlight harmonic subtleties in order to make musical exploration as captivating as possible. The search for symphonic balance, the balance of the sound spectrum, the coherence of spatiality are essential aspects in this vision of rigour and seriousness." 

Sequentia Legenda on 30 January 2018

Read the full review

Sylvain Lupari Aug 10, 2017, Montréal, Canada

 Sylvain Lupari: 
"Véritable amoureux de la musique de Klaus Schulze, Sequentia Legenda va au-delà dans sa quête de reproduire l'essence de la rétro Berlin School avec cet exquis Ethereal. Un must!"
[...]
Près de 30 minutes sur une thématique minimaliste morphique 
qui s'épuisent sans sentiment de lassitude ! Il n'y avait que Klaus Schulze pour réussir pareil exploit. Laurent Schieber fait comme le maître et à la perfection." 

in English:

"A true lover of Klaus Schulze's music, Sequentia Legenda goes beyond his quest to reproduce the essence of Berlin School retro with this exquisite Ethereal. A must!"
[...]
Almost 30 minutes on a minimalist morphic theme 
that wears out without feeling tired! 
Only Klaus Schulze was capable of such a feat. 
Laurent Schieber makes like the master and to perfection." 

 Sequentia Legenda:
"It is a great honour to be compared in this way with the illustrious Klaus Schulze. I have a deep respect for his work. He was a forerunner. A true sound sculptor. 
Mirage was my musical trigger!

For me, the Berlin School is a real passion, I give my best.

I remain humble, I know where I come from and I will see what the future holds for me. 
I just hope to be able to continue on this path and live my dream as best I can. And who knows... maybe someday I could meet Klaus Schulze." 

Sequentia Legenda on 31 January 2018

Read the full review

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com