Q & A. INFLUENCES AND FIRST SYNTHESIZERS

What were your musical influences and what started you off on the path of playing synthesizers ?

My musical ear was first trained by classical music, which we listened to a lot in my family. Then I discovered progressive rock, with Pink Floyd, and that absolute revelation that was their Paris concert with Roland Petit's ballets in 1973: it was my first rock concert, and the discovery of a new multisensory and psychedelic universe, both in terms of sound volume, quadraphonic sound, and the light show, which was already very sophisticated for the time...

 
I don't remember how I discovered the first records by Schulze and Tangerine Dream: probably through one of the music magazines I was reading at the time. It was a second revelation, with the beginnings of the Berlin school, Irrlicht, Black Dance, Timewind, Atem, Zeit, Ash Ra Tempel. 

 

A new sound universe opened up to me, immersive, spatial, experimental, unfolding in long contemplative tracks. This new music, combining drones, lunar organs, and extraterrestrial sound effects, fascinated me from the outset, and since then I have followed the developments of this German music scene, between progressive rock and sound experimentation, with bands such as Can, Embryo, Eloy, Guru Guru, Amon Düül, and of course Kraftwerk. I naturally followed the labels associated with Klaus Schulze, Innovative Communication, and In Team. I was able to see these bands in concert several times, and these are unforgettable memories, particularly Tangerine Dream, Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel, and Can...

 

  

A few years later, I went from listening to music to playing it, thanks to meeting Serge Leroy, who had founded the Crystal Lake association, in which I became very involved. That was in the mid-1980s. Serge already had a modular synthesizer, a Roland System 700. One of his friends was selling an ARP 2600 at the time. I bought it and started experimenting with it, learning the basics of sound synthesis. So I would say that I got into music gradually. I am self-taught and have forged my musical personality through years of listening, then through empirical practice and systematic study... I feel that I am still on a learning curve and constantly progressing, both technically and musically...

 

Originally published in AUDION MAGAZINE #83, August 2025.

Interview by Andy Garibaldi.