ALCYONE under Paul Rijken’s spotlight

"ALCYONE is an album of absolute excellent
Berlin School electronic music
with great sequencing and wonderful soundsculptures.
This music is deep, uplifting and utterly beautiful."
Paul Rijkens (Reviewer for the Dutch magazine iO Pages)

Thanks to Paul Rijkens for this photo

ALCYONE under Paul Rijken’s spotlight
Topic: The album

Paul Rijkens: Alcyone comes out of the Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Aeolus and the wife of Ceyx. She drowned herself in grief when Ceyx died and was transformed into a kingfisher. She was also called Halcyone.

Where did your idea or inspiration come from to use Alcyone as concept for this album?

Sequentia Legenda: In fact, ALCYONE represents the Great Central Sun, which is the theme of my album. A year ago, ALCYONE came to me like a bolt from the blue, and I felt it was essential to express this energy, this elevation emanating from the Great Central Sun, musically. Everyone is free to choose whether or not to embrace it, everyone is free to do their own research and to be discerning, especially in these current times.

For me, it was natural and important to decode and transcribe what I perceived so that I could share and offer the best of myself, both humanly and musically. It was obvious to follow my heart, to share this fabulous energy, this luminous force, this vibrant joy, this infinite hope.

ALCYONE is all that 🙏☀️🙏


Track 1: Around The Great Central Sun
Paul: The sun is all. The sun is everything. Without the sun, earth and the humans cannot survive. It is one of your most joyful compositions, you state in the booklet.

How did you come with the idea of the sun for a track ?

Sequentia Legenda: It was the logical continuation of ALCYONE, I had to highlight this radiant and loving alignment, this incredible creative power literally breathed into me by the Great Central Sun. The more I progressed with this composition, the more the atmosphere of joy grew, much to my delight - it was quite indescribable, in fact. In the end, all I know is that, in my opinion, it's the 'happiest' track in my discography.

Around The Great Central Sun is a message of Peace, Hope and Love, an invitation to gravitate freely in an atmosphere bathed in a divine light and in a creative benevolence. It's a cosmic dance around this fabulous Great Central Sun for a spiritual elevation.


Track 2: The Ring Of Golden Light
Paul: Gold is one of the most precious and valuable materials in the world. Light of gold must also be very precious.

Did you feel surrounded by it when you composed this track?

Sequentia Legenda: I felt surrounded, guided and transcended by a gentle, benevolent emanation that exhaled my creativity – Gratitude🙏

The idea of this composition is to take the listener towards the ring of golden light of an ascending spiral to reach high and beneficial vibrations. The soundscape is a bit like a nebula bathed in a soft, regenerative light. Everyone is free to make up their own mind, to find their own path to exaltation.


Track 3: Bon Voyage
Paul: It means have a good journey or vacation.

Do you consider yourself being on a voyage yourself when you create
your music?

Sequentia Legenda: In a way, yes, there are similarities. When I'm composing, I'm living in my own world, disconnected from our reality so to speak, travelling in my own reality. Time no longer has a hold on me, it's a notion that disappears completely, giving way to a delightful timelessness conducive to creativity. With Bon Voyage, I hope listeners will be able to travel freely and serenely in their own reality.


Track 4: Love Feeds Love
Paul: A for Sequentia Legenda short track. The sequence is fantasic.

What means love to you? How do you make this?

Sequentia Legenda: Thank you Paul for that compliment. It's not really my habit to do short tracks and this is the shortest in my discography. I have to say that this composition literally "invited" itself! In fact, it was planned from the outset that ALCYONE would consist of three tracks, as almost all my albums do. Then, spontaneously, a pressing need arose to rework an initial part. It was a bit like an initiation experience, something that upset the schedule. This composition developed with disconcerting fluidity, as if to persuade me to incorporate this unexpected title. I was really excited by the result, so I decided to add a fourth track, "Love Feeds Love".

In the end, that's how I see Love, in sharing.

 

ALCYONE under Paul Rijken’s spotlight
Topic: Equipment

Paul Rijkens: I am very interested in synthesizers and everything around them. You use mostly software synths. Arturia has created brilliant software emulations of classic synths.

Why have you chosen for this and not for hardware?

Sequentia Legenda: I have to say that when I was between 16 and 21, in my parents' basement, I had a room full of analogue synthesizers, such as the Korg PS 3200, the ARP Odyssey and the Oberheim Two Voices, to name but a few.

Later, with the advent of the MIDI standard, I parted company with these for a large number of digital synths accompanied by Cubase software. Then, like many of us, there were changes in my life and for a while I only kept the Korg DSS1 and the Roland JD800.

Then, a little over ten years ago, I discovered virtual synths and really enjoyed composing with them. Finally, looking back, I've realised that before hardware and everything else: it's the heart that's most important in sharing with listeners. It's my experience, my feelings, of course. I think that my basic knowledge of subtractive synthesis, for example, allows me to approach VST technology with a certain ease and a very precise vision of what I want to highlight. I have to say that overall I'm satisfied.

ALCYONE under Paul Rijken’s spotlight
Topic: Live

Paul Rijkens: I would love to see you play live.

Is there a chance you will perform here in The Netherlands on the E-live of E-day festival?

Sequentia Legenda: Thank you, that's very kind of you. Performing live is something very special, it's a new adventure every time, both technically and on a human level. There's the meeting with the audience, that special contact that makes it a unique moment in itself.

I was lucky enough to be able to play live during 2019, accompanied by German drummer Tommy Betzler (who himself accompanied Klaus Schulze in the mid-80s) in France, Switzerland and Germany.
I have fond memories of that.

As far as future concerts are concerned, it's possible that I'll be able to perform in the Netherlands, and I'd be delighted to do so. Ron Boots and I have been in touch and we'll see what happens. Tommy would also be up for this new adventure on stage. I've got a few imperatives in my life at the moment which mean I can't give you any precise dates. In any case, if it's not possible this year, I hope it'll be next year.

Presentation: My name is Paul Rijkens.

I come from The Netherlands and live in the beautiful ancient inner city of Alkmaar, the city of cheese.

In daily life I work for the Ministry Of Justice. My hobby is music. I love The Beatles and am a volunteer in the Beatles Museum in Alkmaar. My biggest musical love is progressive rock, especially that with (lots of) keyboards in it. I also love electronic music and even tried to make it myself a long time ago. Sine many years I have a weakness for the so-called “Berlin School of electronic music” and that is one of the reasons that I feel so drawn to the music of Sequentia Legenda. Ever since the early eighties, I write about progressive rock and electronic music: I do interviews and write reviews of albums and concerts. In the old days I did that for magazines like Sonic Report, KLEM magazine, E-dition and SI Music Magazine, nowadays I write for the Dutch magazine iO Pages in which I am called the electronic music specialist. 

MY VISION FOR THE BERLIN SCHOOL IN 2023
A heart to heart sharing

I had the great pleasure to share with you my last opus, I will try here to reveal you some aspects from behind the scenes.

ALCYONE represents for me a beautiful adventure, rich in human, spiritual and musical experiences of course. It is a setting in light, the term is appropriate, on the continuum of my musical vision.

As you may know, my music is now tuned to the frequency of 432 Hz in order to offer the purest sound worlds possible. My goal with this new creation is to continue my heart-to-heart sharing, to infuse more and more serenity in order to help you better radiate your own wholeness.

I have to say that the composition phases have unfolded overall with a pleasant fluidity. Gratitude. I wanted through the various universes composing this album, in the structural form, in the color of the harmonies, in the choice of the timbres, to deliver a connection which is the most in adequacy with my feeling. I wished a sound matter the most favourable to dreams, which is at the same time rich and ethereal and comfortable to the listening. To lay down notes tinged with light that could evoke the freedom between the dimensions of a journey that could be relived each time and in a totally personal way.  

I hope that ALCYONE and its four sound universes will accompany you during your astral and immersive peregrinations, arousing in you for a long time beautiful and sweet emotions.

I wish you lots of listening pleasure.

ALCYONE

 

 

            

BEYOND THE STARS retrospective

How High?
So high that i can touch the sky!

BEYOND THE STARS: LITTLE BIT OF DREAM,
A MUSICAL ESCAPE, A SHARING OF EMOTIONS

I'm pleased to do a retrospective on my album BEYOND THE STARS.

Released in 2020, this three-track opus aims to shine a spotlight on the purest tradition of the Berlin School. It's an invitation to travel into a musical and cosmic space. Come and touch the stars and let yourself be gently rocked to the rhythm of the sequence.

The album is of course available on my Bandcamp page as a digital version and also as a Digipack CD pressing including a poster. Distribution is also via the Patch Work Music website.

BEYOND THE STARS: A little dream, a musical escape, a sharing of emotions.

Three titles in the purest tradition of the Berlin school.

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

1. EXPERIMENTAL:
THE WAY OF PERSEVERANCE AND HOPE

This long composition demanded a great deal of energy and patience from me. Additional rhythmic elements by Tommy Betzler have been added to the basic percussion. The work was worth it, this title sounds today as it resonated deep inside me at the very beginning, a little more than a year ago.

EXPERIMENTAL

 
2. FLOAT AMONG THE STARS:
A MUSICAL AND MENTAL ELEVATION

The emanations of sequences from the modular Moog open this composition accompanied by the faraway strings of the Solina. The upward journey continues towards a musical and mental elevation. The vaporous atmosphere of the second part is an invitation to float among the stars.

FLOAT AMONG THE STARS

3. BEYOND FROM THE BEYOND:
A MUSICAL AND CONTEMPLATIVE CIRCUMNAVIGATION

The experimentation of a new musical approach for this revisited version of Circumnavigation. A musical and contemplative journey, a navigation around life and eternity – a journey to the beyond.

BEYOND FROM THE BEYOND

A RETROSPECTIVE OF SOME TESTIMONIALS
ABOUT THE MUSIC OF SEQUENTIA LEGENDA

It's still just as important for me to get feedback from my listeners, it's essential.

I'd like to thank all those who follow me and support me on this musical path, I really appreciate it.

TESTIMONIALS

Thanks to Beata Pardela for this photo

YOUR MUSIC IMMEDIATELY CAUGHT MY ATTENTION

I discovered your music at the end of 2018 on Bandcamp, and the first shot I heard was "MIND LAKE". As I am a great lover of electronic music, as well as the editor of the only Polish internet radio EL-Stacja promoting exclusively electronic music, your music immediately caught my attention. I am fascinated by the genre of the Berlin School and this style of music is the most important for me.
The music created has a gentle sequential structure that allows you to immerse yourself in your dreams, to think and above all to relax with it. For me, the moments spent with this music act as a balm for the soul, carry everyday problems somewhere far away and give great relaxation and the strength to struggle with reality. This music has a great calming and relaxing power and I am happy to listen to it.

Beata Pardela
(Radio Moderator - EL-Stacja - Poland)

🎙️ Beata Pardela asked a question to Sequentia Legenda: "I would like to know how your music has influenced you, how it has evolved over the last five years, when you have created so many really great and precious pieces, and how you evaluate your work in five years. What are your ideas and plans for the coming years?"

🎙️ Sequentia Legenda: "My influence goes back to my teenage years when I discovered Mirage Klaus Schulze's album by chance. That was my musical trigger. So it was much later, in 2014 with BLUE DREAM, that I took the plunge and brought my musical work into the open. Those first five years were pure joy as I was able to share my passion with success and recognition. I am proud and honoured. These first five years have been a pure joy in that I have been able to share my passion with success and recognition. My dream has come true and my next projects will be in this line with a constant evolution."

FIVE YEARS WHERE EVERY TIME I'M SURPRISED

For me it's five years where every time I'm surprised that you manage to surprise me The challenges in your personal life perspire on the sweetness of your music. Even in its most intense moments. And this sensitivity that you lay down in music responds freshly to mine.

Sylvain Lupari
(Reviewer - Synth&Sequences)

🎙️ Sylvain Lupari asked a question to Sequentia Legenda: "Five years Laurent since BLUE DREAM! Are you satisfied with your evolution? How did you see yourself five years ago? Are you where you wanted to be?"

🎙️ Sequentia Legenda: "Time goes by quickly indeed, too quickly! I am a sensitive and demanding person with myself and I must admit without pretension that I am happy and satisfied with the journey I have made in five years. I have always favoured work, quality, rigour and sincerity. In the end, I am satisfied to find myself five years later in total adequacy with my musical vision of the start! I have made no concessions, I have kept the course I set myself and this is the one that will guide me for the next five years: sharing my sensitivity through my sound universes."

Thanks to Anton Uraletz for this photo

VAST SEAS OF HARMONIC SEQUENCES

My way to Berlin-school electronics was easy but long and took almost 20+ years since I heard it for the first time… there is so much interesting music around, and I explored it step by step, style by style. In the end of December 2015, a friend of mine gave me a tip to «BLUE DREAM» and «AMIRA» – «Man, you’ll like it… I swear». And yeah, I did. That was a sort of enlightenment – vast seas of harmonic sequences that set up a whole Universe of sound… the seas to immerse in, delving neither into psychedelic nor abstruse soundscapes. Straight-forward, simple and even sequencing is the remarkable and one of the most precious advantages of Sequentia Legenda… it forms these breezing soundscapes that carry you upwards and away on its wings of soaring dreams and reveries to the azure faraway distance where the Highmost Welkin meets the Sound of the Sequence. And that’s the way it is.

Anton Uraletz (Russia)

🎙️ Anton Uraletz asked a question to Sequentia Legenda: "My question about your last 5 years is simple – how have you fell in love with sequencing? What does it mean to you?"

🎙️ Sequentia Legenda: "I fell in love with the sequences from the very beginning of my discovery of Klaus Schulze's discography with the two sound universes of Mirage. The sequencer is my favourite tool, it is very often by the setting up of the loops that my creative work begins. The sequencer is my machine for weaving the soundtrack. It is important for me to make several loops of notes cohabit and to bring this harmonic and rhythmic ensemble to life.  My vision of sequencing: Loops in perpetual evolution."

Thanks to Oleg Parfentev for this photo

THE ART OF SEQUENTIA LEGENDA

I will start from a distance and tell you how I discovered electronic music and the Berlin school in particular.

...it was somewhere in the 90's, I don't remember exactly. I couldn't sleep at night, so I turned on the radio. There was beautiful, unusual music on the air, not like the music on other radio stations. I stayed on that show and listened to it until morning. Later I found out that it was a program about electronic music called Back to the Universe. Programmed at certain hours of the night, and its permanent host was (and still is) DJ, musician and journalist Martin Landers. Here is his website and information.

This man (his programs) took me into the world of electronic music, which I had never known before, and it was from him that I got to know the Berlin School and other areas of electronic music, Klaus Schulze and many other musicians and bands.

I heard the music of Sequentia Legenda for the first time 3 years ago on https://vk.com/ (it's our Russian analogue Facebook).

Only there you can put music in addition to texts, photos and videos. As a rule, it is pirated, which means that nobody pays for it. I really liked the songs (AU REVOIR, SOLITUDES LUNAIRES, THE APPROACH), and I kept them.

Much later, I decided to search the facebook page of Sequentia Legenda. And I had by chance the release of the new album OVER THERE, which of course I also liked a lot.

And then, Laurent, I recognized your blog, your page on bandcamp.com and all your music. And I also met you and made friends on facebook.

Each of your albums, I discovered it gradually : listen, listen, listen... They are different, but there is definitely a recognizable style, the style of Sequentia Legenda. Each album has a favourite track or even several. I also really like the way your CDs are made: the photo, the design and of course the sound. Thank you very much for your autographs and wishes. It's very expensive! In the age of digital sound, it's very nice to hold a CD (or a vinyl record) in your hands! (At least for me).

What does your music mean to me?
Laurent, for me, what you do on stage is magic. It's magical. I have no idea how it works! Yes, there's an idea, there are means and tools to implement it (synthesizers, computers, instruments). But how it all ends up in this fascinating music - I don't understand! And I don't have to understand it. Magic must contain mystery. But I MUCH like what you get in the end!

At the moment, for various reasons, I am not as actively following news and innovations in the field of music. But when I hear a melody on a radio station, I immediately recognize Sequentia Legenda. How do I feel? If something you like sounds like SOLITUDES LUNAIRES (one of the diamonds in your collection!), I'm delighted. The heart starts beating more often, breathtaking, you fly away... It's not in words!

In conclusion, I would like to thank you, Laurent, for the joy and happiness you bring to us, the listeners, with your magical music. You have always had and will always have a constant and faithful listener who needs you. Keep on creating. I know this is a difficult moment in your life, but let your two suns (Dylan and Valentin), as you once said, light your way and give you strength and confidence. You are a wonderful father, a wonderful musician and, in general, a kind and good person.

I am very happy to have met you and the art of Sequentia Legenda.

I wish you much, much luck and all the best!

Oleg Parfentev (Russia)

🎙️ Oleg Parfentev asked a question to Sequentia Legenda: "I'm interested in how the composition is born? Where does it begin? The very beginning. How do you put in your head this melody, this rhythm that will later be a success in your album? How does it happen? (I suspect that creating a melody is a long and tedious process (I might be wrong). But it always has a beginning, a starting point (a starting impulse). What does this mean to you? Share it, please, if you can share it :)"

🎙️ Sequentia Legenda: "The creative phase, begins in a subtle and unpredictable way, it's a call, a magnet that will attract me to my keyboards. Inspiration can come from an image, a story, a sound, a walk, a chance too. Then, in front of my machines, the experimental phase begins, often by setting up the first loops, then the first layers. Then begins the real work of composition, which can sometimes be time-consuming, because I am a demanding person - demanding on myself as well. For example, for my first track FLY OVER ME (BLUE DREAM), it took me no less than sixteen months to be satisfied with the result! Music is an achievement and I always want to put quality before quantity, I want to offer the best of myself for my listeners and for the beautiful musical movement that the Berlin School represents."