After his album named ‘A & B’, the French pyschedelia virtuoso Romain Turzi has gone solo, back to his original roots, as on his debut album but this time experimenting with his new musical toy Yamaha Tenori-On, digging deep on synths and real electro sounds. Coproduced with Pilooski, Turzi’s new solo album is full of energy and real electro rhyme. Let’s lend an ear to his abum ‘Education’ and fantastic new project, Turzi Électronique Expérience.

What do you want to teach to your listeners with your newly project?
Feel free to do with the music what you want without thinking about the other's opinion, without thinking about the fashion things, without respect to your influences, without respect to your parents.
Just do your stuff trying to integrate your past and your actual feelings in terms of love, violence, and emotions. 

It is also a new way for you, experimenting and experiencing new ways of doing music right?
It's a new way because I've made this LP alone (with a little help of Pilooski on production- a polish guy living in Paris), I mean all those songs were imagined, invented and created by me, although before I used to create the music with four others people, which results in a tourbillon of rock/electro/psych stuff.
I was quite bored about reading chronicle saying that my music was only kraut or psych, at some point I decided to put my carrier in danger by touring to digital sounds and just doing the opposite that I did before… I just don't care about fashionistas and musical ways that everybody likes…. So I closed the door of my studio to make something personal, without thinking at the other's comments.

Is it your comment to the current electronic music scene: A purified retro move which is more real than anything going around?
As I was trying to say, I've got no basics in electro… I come from experimental/noisy indie rock scene, I was influenced by obscure French composers (as Catherine Ribeiro & Alpes, Catharsis, Hellion…) but also by the German 70's scene (Gottshing, Can, Kraftwerk, Harmonia) and by bands like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine… but that was O.K. for previous LP (‘A and B’)… for that one as I wanted to start from zero I've turn into electro 'cause I had no baseline… I've never been a DJ and I've never collected obscure white label from Chicago or Detroit. So I had start from zero and that was exiting for me of course. I sometime came back to my "rock" reflexes but in an electronic way that's why some people consider this LP as Education LP as a new statement in electronic music, and to be honest I appreciate it!

How long did it take to finish the debut?
It took a year, although there's only 8 songs the beginning of the session was completely different from the final result. I came from something Berlin school to something really ambient ala Chill out from KLF, to something gabber to finally stop on this. Working with Pilooski helped to consider that my music was not just based on difference ambiances but based on real composition. I just didn't realized it at the beginning. I record new stuff everyday since three years now and my laptop is full of things that will never be released, until I die!

What were the inspirations at the starting point and where do you think you reached at the end?
The inspirations were all the things you've learned at school, history, sports, mathematics, geography, religion, sex, power, romanticism, love, drugs.

What equipments did you use other then your Tenori-on and the old DX-27?
The tenori-on is at the center of my actual configuration, I use it as a mdi step sequencer that controls everything from the tempo (as a master clock to my modified Roland TR-606 which also controls two simians brain) the notes, the tension plays five midi channels which are respectively : 
1 : the DX27 and the Roland system 100 model 102 (expander which doubles the DX) also a vocoder
2 : the Roland system 100 model 101 and the vocal section of the vocoder
3 : The three o three and the bass section of this XXX vocoder.
4 a Korg MS10
5 : another DX expander which is the TX7 which do some synthetic vocals.

To conclude, it's a mix between FM and analog technology… Now that this album is done, I'm into 12bit samplers as the emulator II. it's totally new for me, so very "fresh". And that's it. When I play live I of course bring all that stuff if the promoter can pay the extra luggage. This set up allows me to improvise a lot, as if I were in the studio.

Your new moniker T.E.E. does it have any allusion to Trans European Express?
Ha ha … Trans Europe Express was a kind of starting point for me. Ten years ago it's by this LP that I started to consider the electronic music as an entire genre living by itself.

What are your new and forthcoming projects? Will there be any new remixes from the album?
I asked KLF, Michael Cretu (Enigma) and Robert Miles (Mr Dream) but they didn't want, so my friend Rebotini did one for me, I've done another myself and some other guys did too. I'm open minded for remixes but I've always preferred buying EP's with unreleased material instead of remixes. But that's the way record companies work so… I really like remixing people, especially genre that has nothing to see with my style (or tastes).

Have you ever been to İstanbul, Would you like to be here again for the T.E.E. project?
I've never been there but it will with a big pleasure. It's always good to travel with your music, meeting some new people and learning from them. If you invite me there, it would be with a great pleasure!

Your press sheet finishes with 'The Rest Is Silence' Is it really?
Yeah, because it’s just rime with experience and all the names of my tracks (‘deviance’, ‘enfance’, ‘connaissance’, ‘croissant’, ‘constance’, ‘en france’…).
But if you deeply listen to the "Ecstatic Dub Mix" of the DM track "Enjoy The Silence" you'll understand this sentence better!


Interview: Christopher Çolak
28 January 2012