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.

 

 

            

13 Questions à Sequentia Legenda en attendant "OVER THERE" (deuxième partie)

Sequentia Legenda interviewé par Bertrand Loreau
(deuxième partie)

PROCURER UNE PART DE RÊVE

Bertrand Loreau :
"Tu revendiques l'influence de Klaus Schulze et manifestement tes œuvres, notamment par leurs structures, rappellent les constructions de ses morceaux. Est-ce que tu crois cependant que ta sensibilité personnelle est suffisamment forte pour que tu ne sois pas vu comme un simple imitateur de l'artiste berlinois."

Sequentia Legenda :
  "Je suis naturellement flatté et fier de pouvoir lire tout ce qu’il se dit sur moi et sur ma musique, toutes les comparaisons avec Klaus Schulze. Et que ne le serait pas ? J’ai cependant, ma personnalité, ma propre vision de la Berlin School et suffisamment de sensibilité pour faire transparaître mes émotions au travers de mes titres. Je crois que si l’on joue la musique qui provient de son cœur et de son âme, les auditeurs percevrons cette musique comme authentique et sincère. Je suis, tout simplement heureux, de pouvoir partager ma propre vision musicale, de procurer une part de rêve, un moment de détente et d’évasion."

LA PÉRIODE OÙ KLAUS UTILISAIT LES SYNTHÉTISEURS ANALOGIQUES

Bertrand Loreau :
"Est-ce que tu apprécies toute la discographie de Schulze
ou évites-tu certaines périodes ?"

Sequentia Legenda :
  "C'est par une après-midi d’été en 1980, j’avais 15 ans et je parcourais la collection des vinyles de mes parents. Parmi toutes les albums, une pochette avec un portrait stylisé en vert et bleu m’intriguait. Après avoir examiné de plus près cette mise en pages originale, je me décidais à mettre le 33 tours sur le tourne-disque. Dès les premières minutes, ce fut un véritable coup de foudre. L’album « Mirage » de Klaus Schulze fut pour moi un véritable déclencheur ! « Mirage » est mon favori, j’apprécie également beaucoup « Moondawn », « Timewind », les deux « Body Love », le double album « X » pour ce qui est de la période analogique. « Dune » est un album à part pour moi avec deux titres très différents et une ambiance très particulière, parfois à la limite de l’oppressant, mais avec un travail de recherche sonore, totalement unique. « Totem » est une œuvre de début de carrière que je trouve intéressante avec les prémices des séquences. Pour la période numérique, c’est « E=Trance » et surtout « Trancefer » qui ont retenu toute mon attention. J’ai ensuite décroché après l’album « The Dresden Performance ». Les titres précédents, « Angst », « Inter*Face » ou « Miditerranean Pads » ne m’avait pas totalement séduit.

Encore aujourd’hui, c’est la période où Klaus utilisait les synthétiseurs analogiques qui me plaît le plus et que je trouve la plus intéressante en terme de créativité. Cela ne veut pas dire que tout ce qui a suivi ne m’a pas plu. J’ai trouvé par exemple « Are You Sequenced? » avec une utilisation des séquenceurs intéressante. Le dernier album de Klaus « Silhouettes » est lui aussi remarquable sur certains points, avec une atmosphère qui me rappelle son début de carrière."

LA RENAISSANCE D’UNE CERTAINE BERLIN SCHOOL

Bertrand Loreau :
"As-tu déjà rencontré des gens qui aiment ta musique
et qui ne sont pas des fans de Klaus Schulze ?"

Sequentia Legenda :
  "Bonne question. Je ne sais pas si tous les fans de Klaus Schulze aime ma musique et vice versa. J’ai eu à quelques reprises des retours de personnes ayant découvertes ma musique et qui ne connaissaient pas vraiment le maître allemand. J’ai trouvé cela intéressant me donnant le bon espoir en la renaissance d’une certaine Berlin School."

CETTE BELLE MOUVANCE MUSICALE

Bertrand Loreau :
"Crois-tu que ton travail peut aider des gens à découvrir les disques de référence de la musique électronique des années 70 ?"

Sequentia Legenda :
  "J'en serais bien évidemment ravi. Si je peux apporter ma pierre à l'édifice de cette belle mouvance musicale alors j'aurai finalement réussi mon pari. C’est un plaisir de pouvoir partager à ma manière la richesse de cette période et de mettre au goût du jour cette atmosphère si particulière."

MON CŒUR A ENCORE SUFFISAMMENT DE CHOSES À OFFRIR

Bertrand Loreau :
  "Comment imagines-tu la musique que tu feras dans 5 ou 10 ans ?"

Sequentia Legenda :
"C'est difficile de répondre à cette question de manière totalement objective. Tant de choses peuvent se passer et donc influencer un tant soit peu ma créativité. Dans 10 ans qui sait si je ferais encore de la musique ? Une chose est certaine, si je devais encore composer d'ici là, alors c'est que mon cœur a encore suffisamment de choses à offrir, à partager. Je ne peux pas concevoir ma musique sans passion, sans âme et sans émotions. Je peux donc imaginer une musique qui soit dans la continuité de celle que je produis actuellement, avec une plus grande maturité certainement et avec plus de maîtrise peut-être."

J'AIME LES CORDES, LES SYMPHONIES, LES CHŒURS

Bertrand Loreau : 
"Écoutes-tu d'autres musiques qui s'appuient sur la répétition, les boucles. Écoutes-tu des musiques acoustiques et orchestrales comme celles de Glass ou bien des musiques traditionnelles ?"

Sequentia Legenda : 
"Pour être totalement transparent, je n'écoute certainement pas assez ce que font les autres, je ne trouve pas suffisamment de temps pour écouter de manière assidue la musique des autres. Un des rares moments où j'écoute de la musique, c’est sur la route entre le travail et la maison et c'est alors bien souvent de la musique classique ou du jazz. J'ai toujours eu un grand respect pour les compositeurs de la Grande Musique, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Wagner, Berlioz. J'aime les cordes, les symphonies, les chœurs. Le jazz quant à lui me relaxe. Je n’aime pas l’opéra."

MA SENSIBILITÉ VIENT DE PLUS PROFOND DE MOI

Bertrand Loreau :
  "A propos de ta sensibilité, est-ce que tu peux expliquer d'où elle vient et pourquoi tu ressens le besoin de la partager ?"

Sequentia Legenda :
  "Sacré sujet, vaste thème. Ma sensibilité vient de plus profond de moi, je perçois beaucoup de choses, je ressens les choses avec une grande amplification. C'est parfois même difficile à vivre pour moi et pour les autres. Je suis souvent à fleur de peau et j'ai du mal à cacher mes émotions alors je dois littéralement expulser ce qui me touche par de la peinture, de l'écriture ou de la musique et aussi par le sport. C'est un besoin : partager, communiquer, me libérer. 


Tout récemment, c'est le diagnostic de l’autisme de mon fils cadet qui m'a grandement touché et qui à mes émotions à rudes épreuves. Outre son handicap, Valentin me donne beaucoup d'amour et je suis fier de lui, il m’a ouvert les yeux sur beaucoup de choses. Lui aussi est doué d'une grande sensibilité :-) "

 

Un extrait de ce que sera l'atmosphère de ce projet

 

 

MIND LAKE by Sequentia Legenda (travaux en cours)

Voici un extrait du titre ici encore dans sa version expérimentale. C'est un avant-goût de ma vision musicale pour 2019. Mon travail reste axé sur la symbiose entre les séquences et les nappes. La palette sonore proche de l'ère analogique avec les possibilités des instruments d'aujourd'hui.

Le paysage sonore de ce titre est pour moi proche de mon ambition musicale, de ma vision de la Berlin School d'aujourd'hui et de demain.

UNE FILIATION AVEC LE PIONNIER DE LA BERLIN SCHOOL

"Depuis les années 80 de nombreux artistes ont été attirés par la musique électronique, et les synthétiseurs, après avoir découvert les œuvres de Klaus Schulze. Timewind, Moondawn, Mirage, Dune et dans une moindre mesure Trancefer et Audentity ont fait du compositeur allemand un modèle que beaucoup ont voulu imiter. Schulze a produit ses chef-d’œuvres dans une période qui va de l'avènement de l'analogique au début du digital.

Le compositeur Sequentia Legenda fait partie de cette troisième ou quatrième génération de maîtres des synthétiseurs qui revendiquent une filiation avec le pionnier de la Berlin school. Il produit une musique qui mêle des réminiscences des périodes analogiques et numériques de l'art schulzien, en prenant le risque de systématiser les principes du compositeur de Mirage . On retrouve les séquences qui se lovent sur la face entière d'un immense vinyle, et les transpositions qui retentissent comme des coups de tonnerre pour provoquer le frisson attendu. Mais Sequentia va parfois au-delà de ce que faisait Schulze dans les années 70 comme s'il tentait de dépasser les limites que s'imposait le maître pour ne pas créer de ruptures avec son public. Les accords peuvent être tenus plusieurs minutes et les séquences se construisent et se déconstruisent par éléments séparés au cours de très lents et subtils mixage.

Sequentia Legenda prend le risque de déranger parfois et le risque d'être perçu comme un simple interprète de recettes déjà souvent exploitées dans les musiques cosmiques. Mais il faut le voir autrement. Sequentia Legenda explore les limites de concepts musicaux qui n'avaient peut-être pas tout dit. Son travail sur le son et sa volonté d'hypnotiser, plus que de séduire, font que ses œuvres établissent une passerelle qui n'existait peut-être pas entre la véritable musique de Berlin et la musique ambient. En évitant les solos et les ruptures, sa musique peut être perçue comme l'accompagnement d'un lieu ou d'un espace imaginaire, à la manière de certains travaux de Brian Eno."

Bertrand Loreau

Bertrand Loreau enregistre depuis bientôt 30 ans des albums pour les labels Musea et Spheric Music, il a abordé de nombreux styles allant de la musique mélodique à la musique électroacoustique en passant par la Berlin School

La discographie de Bertrand Loreau chez Patch Work Music

OVER THERE

Sortie prévue pour le 3 mars 2019

Première partie de l'interview

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com

13 Questions to Sequentia Legenda while waiting for "OVER THERE" (second part)

Sequentia Legenda interviewed by Bertrand Loreau
(second part)

PROVIDE A PART OF DREAM

Bertrand Loreau:
"You claim the influence of Klaus Schulze and obviously your works, especially through their structures, recall the constructions of his pieces. Do you think, however, that your personal sensitivity is strong enough that you are not seen as a mere imitator of the Berlin artist."

Sequentia Legenda:
  "I am naturally flattered and proud to be able to read everything that is said about me and my music, all the comparisons with Klaus Schulze. And how can you not be? However, I have my own personality, my own vision of Berlin School and enough sensitivity to express my emotions through my titles. I believe that if you play the music that comes from your heart and soul, listeners will perceive this music as authentic and sincere. I am simply happy to be able to share my own musical vision, to provide a part of dream, a moment of relaxation and escape."

THE PERIOD WHEN KLAUS USED ANALOG SYNTHESIZERS

Bertrand Loreau:
"Do you enjoy all of Schulze's discography or do you avoid certain periods?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "It was on a summer afternoon in 1980, I was 15 years old and I was browsing through my parents' vinyl collection. Among all the albums, a cover with a stylized portrait in green and blue intrigued me. After a closer look at this original layout, I decided to put the LP on the record player. From the very first minutes, it was love at first sight. Klaus Schulze's album "Mirage" was a real trigger for me! "Mirage" is my favorite, I also like "Moondawn", "Timewind", both "Body Love", the double album "X" for the analog period. "Dune" is a special album for me with two very different tracks and a very particular atmosphere, sometimes at the limit of the oppressive, but with a totally unique sound research work. "Totem" is an early career work that I find interesting with the early sequences. For the digital period, it is "E=Trance" and especially "Trancefer" that caught my attention. Then I landed after the album "The Dresden Performance". The previous titles, "Angst", "Inter*Face" or "Miditerranean Pads" had not totally seduced me.

Even today, it is the period when Klaus used analog synthesizers that I like the most and that I find the most interesting in terms of creativity. That doesn't mean that I didn't like everything that followed. For example, I found "Are You Sequenced?" with an interesting use of sequencers. Klaus' latest album "Silhouettes" is also remarkable in some respects, with an atmosphere that reminds me of his early career."

THE REBIRTH OF A CERTAIN BERLIN SCHOOL

Bertrand Loreau:
"Have you ever met people who love your music and who are not fans of Klaus Schulze?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "Good question. I don't know if all Klaus Schulze fans love my music and vice versa.
I have had a few feedback from people who discovered my music and who didn't really know the German master. I found it interesting, giving me good hope for the rebirth of a certain Berlin School."

THIS BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL MOVEMENT

Bertrand Loreau:
"Do you think your work can help people discover the reference records of electronic music of the 70s?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "I would of course be delighted. If I can contribute my part to the building of this beautiful musical movement then I will have finally succeeded in my bet.
It is a pleasure to be able to share in my own way the richness of this period and to bring this special atmosphere to the fore."

MY HEART STILL HAS ENOUGH TO OFFER

Bertrand Loreau:
  "How do you imagine the music you will make in 5 or 10 years?"

Sequentia Legenda:
"It is difficult to answer this question in a totally objective way. So much can happen and therefore influence my creativity to some extent. In 10 years who knows if I'd still be making music? One thing is certain, if I still had to compose, then my heart still has enough to offer, to share. I cannot conceive my music without passion, without soul and emotions. So I can imagine music that is in continuity with the music I am currently producing, certainly with greater maturity and perhaps more mastery."

I LIKE STRINGS, SYMPHONIES, CHOIRS

Bertrand Loreau: 
"Do you listen to other music that relies on repetition, loops. Do you listen to acoustic and orchestral music such as Glass' or traditional music?"

Sequentia Legenda: 
"To be totally transparent, I certainly don't listen enough to what others are doing, I don't find enough time to listen assiduously to the music of others. One of the few times I listen to music is on the road between work and home and it is often classical or jazz music. I have always had a great respect for the composers of the Great Music, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Wagner, Berlioz. I like strings, symphonies, choirs. Jazz relaxes me. I don't like opera."

MY SENSITIVITY COMES FROM DEEP WITHIN ME

Bertrand Loreau:
  "About your sensitivity, can you explain where it comes from and why you feel the need to share it?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "That's a hell of a subject, a big theme. My sensitivity comes from deep within me, I perceive many things, I feel things with great amplification. It is sometimes even difficult for me and others to live with. I have a great sensitivity and I have trouble hiding my emotions so I literally have to expel what touches me through painting, writing or music and also through sport. It is a need: to share, to communicate, to free myself.


Most recently, it was the diagnosis of my youngest son's autism that touched me greatly and affected my emotions in a very difficult way. Besides his handicap, Valentin gives me a lot of love and I am proud of him, he has opened my eyes to many things. He too is endowed with a great sensitivity :-)"

 

An extract of what will be the atmosphere of this project

 

 

MIND LAKE by Sequentia (work in progress).

This extract is still in its experimental version, it is a foretaste, a perspective of my musical vision for 2019. The work remains focused on the symbiosis of the sequences with the pads. It is a sound palette close to the analog era, with the touch of current instruments.
The sound landscape of this title is for me the closest to my musical ambition, to my vision of the Berlin School of today and tomorrow.

A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PIONEER OF THE BERLIN SCHOOL

"Since the 1980s many artists have been attracted to electronic music, and synthesizers, after discovering the works of Klaus Schulze. Timewind, Moondawn, Mirage, Dune and to a lesser extent Trancefer and Audentity made the German composer a model that many wanted to imitate. Schulze produced his masterpieces in a period from the advent of analog to the beginning of digital. 

The composer Sequentia Legenda is part of this third or fourth generation of synthesizer masters who claim a relationship with the pioneer of the Berlin school. He produces music that blends reminiscences of the analogical and digital periods of Schulzian art, taking the risk of systematizing the principles of Mirage's composer. We find the sequences that curl up on the entire face of a huge vinyl, and the transpositions that resound like thunderclaps to provoke the expected thrill. But Sequentia sometimes goes beyond what Schulze did in the 70s as if he was trying to go beyond the limits imposed by the master in order not to create ruptures with his audience. Chords can be held for several minutes and sequences are built and deconstructed by separate elements during very slow and subtle mixing. Sequentia Legenda takes the risk of sometimes disturbing and being perceived as a mere interpreter of recipes already often used in cosmic music. But you have to see it differently. Sequentia Legenda explores the limits of musical concepts that may not have said everything. His work on sound and his desire to hypnotize, rather than seduce, make his works establish a bridge that may not have existed between real Berlin School music and ambient music. By avoiding solos and ruptures, his music can be perceived as an accompaniment to an imaginary place or space, in the same way as some 

of Brian Eno's works."

Bertrand Loreau

Bertrand Loreau has been recording albums for the Musea and Spheric Music labels for almost 30 years, he has approached many styles ranging from melodic to electroacoustic music through the Berlin School.

Bertrand Loreau's discography at Patch Work Music

OVER THERE

Release scheduled for March 3, 2019

first part of interview

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com

13 Questions to Sequentia Legenda while waiting for "OVER THERE" (first part)

Sequentia Legenda interviewed by Bertrand Loreau
(first part)

A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PIONEER OF THE BERLIN SCHOOL

"Since the 1980s many artists have been attracted to electronic music, and synthesizers, after discovering the works of Klaus Schulze. Timewind, Moondawn, Mirage, Dune and to a lesser extent Trancefer and Audentity made the German composer a model that many wanted to imitate. Schulze produced his masterpieces in a period from the advent of analog to the beginning of digital. 

The composer Sequentia Legenda is part of this third or fourth generation of synthesizer masters who claim a relationship with the pioneer of the Berlin school. He produces music that blends reminiscences of the analogical and digital periods of Schulzian art, taking the risk of systematizing the principles of Mirage's composer. We find the sequences that curl up on the entire face of a huge vinyl, and the transpositions that resound like thunderclaps to provoke the expected thrill. But Sequentia sometimes goes beyond what Schulze did in the 70s as if he was trying to go beyond the limits imposed by the master in order not to create ruptures with his audience. Chords can be held for several minutes and sequences are built and deconstructed by separate elements during very slow and subtle mixing. Sequentia Legenda takes the risk of sometimes disturbing and being perceived as a mere interpreter of recipes already often used in cosmic music. But you have to see it differently. Sequentia Legenda explores the limits of musical concepts that may not have said everything. His work on sound and his desire to hypnotize, rather than seduce, make his works establish a bridge that may not have existed between real Berlin School music and ambient music. By avoiding solos and ruptures, his music can be perceived as an accompaniment to an imaginary place or space, in the same way as some 

of Brian Eno's works."

Bertrand Loreau

Bertrand Loreau has been recording albums for the Musea and Spheric Music labels for almost 30 years, he has approached many styles ranging from melodic to electroacoustic music through the Berlin School.

Bertrand Loreau's discography at Patch Work Music

RELEASE MY CREATIVE IMPULSES

Bertrand Loreau:
"When you start a project, is it thinking about a particular Klaus album?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "When I start a musical project, I have a global idea, a common thread that can come from an image, a title, a memory, an emotion or a sound, but it is not necessarily linked to a particular title of Klaus. The beginning of a new opus is an important moment, it is each time unique and particular. It is a new story that is written,
that develops with sensitivity, meticulousness and passion. I always give myself a little
time between two albums, until, when the time comes, I feel a very strong attraction
that will push me back in front of the keyboards and then allow me to release
my creative impulses."

MY ALI BABA'S CAVE

Bertrand Loreau:
  "You use virtual synthesizers but aren't you tempted to work with analogics by privileging spontaneity and improvisation?"

Sequentia Legenda:
"While it is true that I currently only use virtual instruments, I would add that they are hand-picked to correspond precisely to my musical vision. I am very attached to this beautiful analog era of the 70s. In the 80s, I had set up my music studio in my parents' cellar, it was my Ali Baba's cave: PS3200 Korg, Polymoog, Crumar Multiman S, Korg Polyphonic Ensemble PE-1000, ARP Odyssey, Oberheim Two Voice, RE 201 Roland, Korg MS and SQ10. It was then that I initiated myself as an autodidact to subtractive synthesis with great delight.

Today I have a lot of fun with the VST's. The sound is great when you take the time and care to optimize certain parameters. The place for spontaneity is not limited and improvisation can be possible with a little ingenuity. It is not excluded that I may "marry" virtual instruments with "real" synthesizers in the medium term."

 

I HAVE MY OWN VISION OF BERLIN SCHOOL

Bertrand Loreau: 
"You leave a lot of space for sequences in your recordings and you don't try to play solos like the ones Klaus used to do. However, it was thanks to the solos that Klaus relaunched his songs and expressed his particular sensitivity.
You're assuming that choice?"

Sequentia Legenda: 
"Yes, absolutely, I fully accept that choice. I have my own vision of Berlin School: a purified vision. I want to go to the essential and propose sound worlds where the listener can freely discover the sonic pearls that are hidden there. The sequencer remains my favorite tool. I am constantly trying to make the loops evolve between them and literally make the sequencers "sing" throughout my compositions! They are accompanied by tablecloths and choirs and sometimes percussion. Among these elements, there are occasionally a few melodic lines.

Solos are still not my priority. I want to let my compositions "breathe" and preserve enough space for the listener to finally imagine his own worlds and solos. It is through the global atmosphere and all its subtleties that one can perceive all my sensitivity."

THIS BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL MOVEMENT

Bertrand Loreau: 
"Do you think there is a future for the Berlin School and its very long tracks with its very slow developments? Don't you think that it's only the people who have known the golden age of electronic music who continue to listen to this musical genre?"

Sequentia Legenda: 
"Yes, I think that this beautiful musical movement still has a bright future ahead of it and that it will continue to make people dream. The length of the pieces is not a problem in itself as long as the listener is sufficiently interested and willing to take the time to escape and set off on a musical and introspective journey. It's a music that allows you to get out of this tumultuous daily life, where everything has to go fast, too fast! I have a few young people among my fans, some of whom are about ten years old, so yes: I remain confident while keeping my head on my shoulders, because I know that it is a musical niche."

A NICE CHALLENGE

Bertrand Loreau:
  "Do the pieces you make have to be long. Is length necessary to install a climate or an emotion? Isn't length also a facility? Tangerine Dream had said well by making "Sorcerer", that to make short pieces was a new and difficult exercise which had taught them much."

Sequentia Legenda:
  "There is no obligation, it's just a matter of course for me to compose like that. Personally, I believe that it takes a certain amount of time for the listener to escape and immerse himself totally in the sound worlds I propose and forget everything around him. About twenty minutes is a duration that seems appropriate to me to live this kind of musical journey in an optimal way. It is essential for me that the listener can gradually immerse himself in order to be able to take full advantage of the sound discovery that is offered to him. I don't know if it's a facility, I just think it's normal for me to compose in this way, I'm not to calculate with time, I let my emotions, my sensitivity express itself and let myself be guided according to the creative phase. I can turn this question around and say that keeping the listener to keep in suspense for a while is also a nice challenge."

 

PLAYING THE MUSIC THAT COMES FROM MY HEART

Bertrand Loreau:
  "Your albums are selling pretty well. Does that encourage you to keep producing the same kind of music? Are you influenced by this success or do you produce your music only according to your current desires?"

Sequentia Legenda:
  "By exposing my work just five years ago, I was looking to a certain extent and in all humility to make myself known. If today, some people see me as an influential musician from the Berlin School, then it's wonderful. But I have never speculated on any financial manna. I am naturally delighted to be able to sell my albums, but here too, I keep my head on my shoulders. I have a family, a job and I am aware that it is now perfectly utopian to think about living off his music, knowing that my musical style cannot compete with this mass commercial music. On the other hand, I am proud to be able to stand out, to share my passion with informed listeners and to please myself by playing the music that comes from my heart. My creativity is not really influenced by this success, it remains free. A creative freedom that remains in line with my musical vision. I don't think I can play any other music. I don't really have any big rules, but one constant: to please myself first and foremost and for as long as possible."

 

 

An extract of what will be the atmosphere of this project

 

 

The first six minutes of FLOATING TIME (work in progress).

Here is an extract of the second track of the future album OVER THERE. It is a composition in the purest tradition of the Berlin School of the mid-1970s. Today's synthesizers deliver analog grain tones.

In the distant fog and breaking waves, the ringing of a bell can be heard. A craft floating on an unknown sea advances slowly, then it is a progressive flight towards the heavens. In this mystical atmosphere, it is the rumbling from the sky and the depths of the sea that mixes with floating sequences and whirling sounds...

For this title and for this future album, the choirs of the Mellotron and the strings of the Solina come to be added to the other mythical instruments such as the Modular Moog, the Minimoog or other Jupiter 8.

For this title, the German drummer Tommy Betzler (who worked with Klaus Schulze in the 80s) will join me. 

OVER THERE

Official release planned for March 3, 2019

            

www.sequentia-legenda.com