Q & A. THE BEGINNINGS OF LIGHTWAVE

 

How did the three members of Lightwave get together and what were your musical aims? 

Lightwave concert at the Auditorium des Halles (1987) with  PopDreams dancers.

The initial idea to form a band came from Serge Leroy. The very first Lightwave lineup included Serge, Laurent Bozec, and myself. Each of us experimented at home with our instruments, and playing together was naturally an exciting challenge. The reference to Tangerine Dream was also obvious. This first lineup was short-lived, but it distinguished itself in a largely improvised concert that quickly spiraled into a maelstrom of sound, even noise, with Laurent's VCS 3 spiraling out of control and turning the set into a cosmic-industrial experiment at very high volume. Our friends Yvan Coaquette and Anannkha Raghel, from Fondation, were in the audience and told us afterwards that they had really enjoyed this slightly crazy concert, which reminded them of some of Musica Elettronica Viva's wild performances. That was in 1985...  

 

Lightwave concert at the Auditorium des Halles (1987). Rehearsals.

While Laurent dropped out to focus on his studies, Christoph Harbonnier joined Serge and me in 1986 for a second concert. This was the second incarnation of Lightwave, very Berlin School-oriented, with another nod to Tangerine Dream. We had substantial equipment, mainly analog. We were able to set up our studio in a room in the house where Christoph lived in the distant suburbs of Paris. Our music was largely improvised and recorded live on Revox during our studio sessions. Each of us brought our own skills and personality to the table: Serge with his sophisticated sequences, Christoph with his rhythmic additions and polyphonic layers, and me with a palette of spatial sounds produced by the ARP 2600 and multiplied by delays and reverbs, as well as occasional lead parts. 

 

 

Originally published in AUDION MAGAZINE #83, August 2025.

Interview by Andy Garibaldi.