LINEARMOVEMENT Undoubtedly, the Autumn/Linear Movement/Twilight Ritual saga, was one of the most interesting and prolific adventures ofwhat we call minimal synth today.As nexus of the three projects, we can find Peter Bonne, who was also part of the most creative period ofA Split-Second. How did you become interested in the music of Klaus Schulze, Ashra Temple and Tangerine Dream? How did these artists influence your way of doing music? It was the late 70s and the use of synths created the most innovative and inspirational music style of the time (other than hard rock and disco). The ones you mention are the most known but there were many great artists working in the shadows. It was a sport to track them down, find their albums, go to their concerts when it was possible. Underground magazines, even on cassette, spread the word. I listened to them all day and even had a 3-hour night show on the local radio. You met Geert Coppens and created Autumn. You were going to school together, right? Did you become friends because of a shared interest in electronic music? That might very well be the case. We shared a classroom for a few years. I played a bit of guitar, he got access to an electric bass guitar, my brother played an organ…All that was quite a thing in that time. So,we started jamming and sharing albums and it took off. Howdid the evolution of gear change the music that you were doing at the time? Was it a limitation for you? At the beginning you had to rent the equipment, right? You were one of the first bands to get a Roland TR 808, weren’t you? We were lucky to live at the time where every year or so some revolutionary new instrument was released. Stunning but also frustrating as they were so expensive. Buying one today meant it was old the following year and as young guys, we did not have that money of course. I remember visiting the music shop after school just to freak out on the newest synths – Polymoog, ARP 2600 -, I was dreaming away. Our real first recording was “She Says”,Geert and myself on guitars and vocals, recording on a 2-track tape in my bedroom. No synths yet. That was modern and hip, can you imagine? Later on, we would lay our hands on a small synth, the Yamaha CS30, that you can hear in all the early recordings with its sharp sequencer and monophonic solo sounds. From there on, we grew a bit but mainly got things done through renting and borrowing stuff, still recording on a 2-track tape with its 2 little mikes. Then, later on, I was able to make a good purchase and that indeed included the first TR808 (in my www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 12 - country, of course) which I lent out to Marvin Gaye for a while in return for a favourable purchase at the shop. (PS –the shop also delivered to Marvin Gaye,who was living in Belgium at that time to prep for his next release Sexual Healing) You have been building your own studios during your long career. Can you please tell us more about this? In the first studios we rather improvised the setups, where gear was organised so we could jam and record easily. From the third studio on, it was a proper studio with 12-channel mixing and 4-track recording. That setup stayed while we added synths and other stuff in and out, until I moved to the Top Studio in Ghent, which was a proper studio. From there on I moved up in professionalism. How did you experience the cassette culture of the 80s? Were you in contact with other musicians? Oh yes, there was very active communication across the globe between fans, cassette labels, other bands etc. I had a very lively communication during the early 80s. That brought our music onto many compilation cassettes. Your most ambitious event of that timewithAutumnwas Hard Breakfast, can you please tell us more about it? It was ambitious as it was a 3-day concert (3 locations) with 12 participants and a bunch of hardware synths we never saw before. 1981. 17 years old. Crazy. The first night, we could count on tracks we wrote before and tried to play with a little extra using the new stuff. The second day, the new stuff took over and that performance was fully recorded. It helped that we could rehearse all day before the show. The best parts (most improvised) are on that album.We had video projection, jazz dancers, flute, and a f*** delay!!! One of the interesting aspects of Autumn was the capability of improvising between you and Geert. Something that’s not so common nowadays in electronic music. Were you rehearsing a lot or was it just something natural between the two of you? Everytime Geert and I met, we wrote and recorded several songs a day, for sure. There was no production, editing or arrangement involved, we just started playing and if we agreed on something good, we continued with that idea until we said: -OK, let’s record it. I’ve got piles of 2-track tapes and cassettes that are filled with recordings like these.Over time, the best recordings were
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