Known throughout Europe for his work as a musician, producer, and audio technician, Laurent Bourgeon aka Lotuzia keeps his focus by keeping it simple. Yet, his musical expertise as a sound designer is well sought after. I became familiar with Lotuzia through his recent remix of Lady of Night by Spiritual Machinery. Soon after, we got a chance to talk about his work on the Lady of Night remix and the music business in general.
Warlock Asylum: It is certainly an honor to have you as a guest on the news page. Your contributions to electro music and its technical aspects are deeply appreciated by many of our readers. Before we begin the interview, may I ask that you introduce yourself to our readers? Who is Laurent Bourgeon aka Lotuzia?
Laurent Bourgeon: I’m a sound designer and virtual instrument concept developer, working for many companies. I’m also a musician, playing mainly keyboards.
Warlock Asylum: How did you get involved in music?
Laurent Bourgeon: I signed my first contract with a record company at 18. It all begun because some of my best friends had a rock band when I was a teenager. They needed a drummer. So, well, I took the drums. ( which might explain why I’ve always been fascinated by drum machines).
Warlock Asylum: Many of us who are familiar with your work, admire your passion as a producer and sound designer. How did you find yourself in these aspects of production?
Laurent Bourgeon: I came back to music with the sound design project, when I was actually teaching database conception. This eventually became my new job. Production simply came occasionally on demand of some friends.
Warlock Asylum: Tell us about your work as a sound designer for Le Lotus Bleu and establishing certain presets and etc?
Laurent Bourgeon: It’s quite simple actually. I have a huge library of sounds in my head. I expand it each day by working on new architectures and ideas and refining the existing ones with meaningful variations.
Warlock Asylum: How did you get into music production, and more specifically remixes?
Laurent Bourgeon: Well, contemplating the past, it seems I’ve made mixes and arrangements all my life. Each time someone was needed to polish some tracks, or the overall form of a music piece, there were chances that you would find me to finally perform these tasks. You have to make quick decisions, then assume them, and turn them into reality. This is what I’d call positive pressure. I like that.
Warlock Asylum: I actually got the opportunity to hear your remix of Lady of Night by Spiritual Machinery, very impressive work. Can you tell us how did this version of Lady of Night come about?
Laurent Bourgeon: Thank you for your kind words. Hakan is a friend, and he asked me to make a personal version of the track, with total freedom to transform it. I thought it could be a nice challenge.
Warlock Asylum: In what ways is your version of Lady of Night different than the original?
Laurent Bourgeon: I changed nearly all the instruments sounds, replayed some of the parts, because I was after a certain groove, and added new ones. The main idea was to support the vocals, find a global reference sound, the right acoustic space, and add arrangements when I felt it was needed.
Warlock Asylum: What can we expect to hear from Laurent Bourgeon in the near future?
Laurent Bourgeon: At the moment I’m working on a new version of StiX, the VSTI Drum Machine I created with a French company called Xils-Lab. (I used it on Lady of Night btw). And some new content for it, exploring at the moment the contours, and limits, of what could be called Post Reality Drums, a pompous word which for me means natural sampled sounds, that won’t sound as realistic as huge Sampled Drums instruments, but, with the help of StiX very sophisticated and unique synthesis and sequencer engines, will allow you to create some ‘more than real’ drum tracks. So these drum tracks could not have been made by natural-sounding virtual instruments like BFD, and even less by a real drummer. But they sound in the end somewhat natural, or over natural in a lack of a better term, which can be seen as a plus, or a minus, depending on what you’re expecting from a drum track. It’s a side synthesis field of StiX, which is merely known as a virtual Analog/FM drum machine, but I personally see it as an expansion of what could be done in the 80s/90s with legendary instruments like the LinnDrum or the SCI Drumtracks sampled based digital instruments. It’s also another step in the direction of making StiX as powerful and versatile as the paragon of hardware units, the Elektron one.
I also recently released a new synthesizer soundset for a Swiss company, Tal-Audio, and I’m working on some translations of official soundsets in the Native Instruments NKS system, with a unique approach, because the controls on NI hardware controllers will have different macro controls tailored for each preset on the 1st page, which, as far as I know, has never been done.
I’m also prototyping some ideas with my modular system for new modules that could end in synthesizers or drum machines. And finally, I might do a few more remixes with Spiritual Machinery. Well, with all this, and a few side projects, I will hopefully avoid boredom in the next six months.
On behalf of Warlock Asylum International News, I would like to say thanks for sharing a part of your life with our readers. We wish you all the best on your musical journey and beyond.