I used different pseudonyms for my releases: Batchas / Freq63 / Mydaüs / Trebor Semas / Microscope. Side Projects: Myiase / Mental Showdowns.
It all started at the age of 9, when I got my first “musical” instrument, a Bontempi electric plastic toy guitar – the neighbours will never forget this memorable Christmas in 1972!
As a child, I loved to look inside all kinds of household electrical appliances – toaster / tv / radio / vacuum cleaner etc – which was giving a lot of worry to my parents…
The Bontempi was soon recycled in a kind of “high frequencies / mind-blowing” feedback generator, reduced to its PCB and “played” with a mini screwdriver or fingers pressed on the electronic circuit, before it died in smoke.
In ’76, for my 13th birthday, I get my own Hi-Fi as a present (!) and I buy Kraftwerk “Radio activity” 7 inch, a hit back then in France.
Imagine “Radio activity” next to LPs from Demis Roussos, Nana Mouskouri, Charles Aznavour and Léo Ferré that my mother was listening to…
I start buying albums with pocket money, like Klaus Schulze “Timewind”, Vangelis “Heaven and Hell”…
There are a lot of tracks running on the radio with synths at that time, disco mostly, but this one had a shock effect on me.
I also remember a single with a basketball shoe on the cover called “Basket”. I even remember the name of the artist “Jean Loup Lafont”. No idea now how the track did sound, but it would be fun to listen to it today. I think there was even a track from Jean-Michel Jarre on this single.
This is also the year when my mom is sending me for a couple of months to Sutton in England. The family I’m living with over there is listening to The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd… all kind of hippie stuff 🙂
Though I confess that a track on The Beatles white album like “Revolution 9”, or even “Helter Skelter”, had some impact on me when I discovered them.
In ’79, I’m sent again to England, this time in Croydon. I’ll come back to France a couple of months later with a bunch of punk records and a special taste for ska music. My mom doesn’t recognize me at the airport!
I’m 16 and this period has a huge influence on my future (Crass, The Buzzcocks etc.).
I start to play bass guitar, I’m fond of music, science-fiction litterature, comics and movies.
There’s an arthouse in town where I am going to regularly since I’m 13. It’s a “cinema d’art et essais” as they call it, where they show all kind of non-commercial movies when they get released, as well as the french nouvelle vague, italian neorealism, japanese cinema etc etc. They let you always in, even when the movie is forbidden under 18, which is often the case.
Movies like A Clockwork Orange, Phantom of the Paradise, Solaris, Stalker just to name a few, had a lot of effect on me. I remember when I first saw Eraserhead. Eraserhead is THE movie which had the most impact on me. The soundtrack, the photography, the atmosphere… Huge impact!
It’s in Marseille in ’81, during my art studies, that I’ll meet a couple of musicians, also fond like I am of “unconventional” music.
One of them, creator of the “Utilisation du Vieux Port” french label, has a studio with synthesizers. He’s bringing back music from Berlin, “Avant-Garde”, “industrial”. This will also have a major influence on my future works as Batchas.
We’re listening to DAF, Ralph Records releases, Negativland, Die Tödlische Doris, E. Neubauten, TG, SPK (one of the greatest IMHO) etc.
I’m also discovering Nurse with Wound, Hafler Trio, Monte Cazzaza, Whitehouse, Zoviet France, a project I’m really fond of at that time, as well as Pierre Schaeffer (big influence) and Pierre Henry works.
I was a huge fan of The Residents, as well as Renaldo and the Loaf. Tuxedomoon is also a band I liked very much…
Back then, I didn’t care traveling very far to see all these bands playing live!
1983 is the year I choosed the name “Batchas” for my projects. It’s a word in Nissarte (the language spoken in Nice / France) I heard a lot when I was a child. It means “a mess” or “jumble”…
I’ve got a radio, a tape recorder and my brother gives me his Boss DR55 and his EH Memory Man pedal. I’ll record a lot of material on tape at that period!
In 1985 I create in Paris my “Scrotum Production” label, mostly focusing on my own productions as Batchas, from electroacoustic to industrial style (loops on prepared vinyls, tapes, dictaphones, turntables, shortwaves, electronics, EH Memory Man pedal, Boss DR55). Up to ’93, all my releases will come out on cassette tape, in limited edition with handmade packaging.
Having my own label enables me to remain completely independent, from the production to the distribution process.
There are a lot of creative things happening back then in the musical independant scene (industrial, noise, collages, experimental and so on), with new sounds coming from everywhere, independant labels, Mail Art, cassette tapes, limited vinyl editions, hand-made covers…
In Paris there’s a store called “Les Établissements Phonographiques de l’Est”, in Amsterdam there’s “Staalplat”, in Berlin there’s “Gelbe Musik”, in Zurich “Rec-Rec” etc. They offer sales on commission, often distribution and this participates actively in keeping the independant scene very active and alive.
1988-89: my first “raw-electro” experiments under the name Freq63 with minimal analogue equipment: TR606/TR808/Korg MS series/Effect pedal.
After a couple of years living in Berlin before and after the wall fall, I’m moving in ’91 to Zurich, Switzerland.
In ’93, I’m releasing my first CD called “Tahafut-Ul-Tahafut” as Batchas on my Scrotum Production label. I got new contacts as I’m working in a record store and I do find easier ways to press on digital format. Back then, it’s an interesting (and cheap!) “new” promising format.
The same year my side-project with Roger Rotor was born and we do play for the first time live together at the Dynamo in Zurich. A live performance that is released on vinyl in ’94 on our respective labels. I’m mentioning this performance here, because it’s a memorable experience which bended a friendship and it was always a great pleasure to play live with Roger the years after.
In ’95, I am performing as Batchas at the “Musiques Ultimes Festival” in Nevers, Fance.
I’m playing there with friends from Zurich that I invite as guests musicians to assist me for the performance. It is released shortly after by Noise Museum on a LP called “Live in Nevers”. This event was also quite important when I look back. The audience was very receptive and enthusiast, it was a great source of motivation for the years to come.
In ’96, I’m inviting on my label 4 different swiss projects to participate to a compilation dedicated to experimental music in Switzerland. I call it “Etat bruit” and I release it on 5 coloured singles, packed in a metal film box.
1996 is the year I also create Sulfur Records electronic label to release “The Mental Showdowns”. A split LP with raw old-school electro I recorded in ’89 as Freq63 and new tracks by Tom Tone Meier, in a “detroïsh” vein.
In ’96, I’m getting more and more interested in a new way of communication between the artist and the auditor: internet.
I decide to have my own website and I start to learn to use a few publishing tools. A couple of months later, the website is online on an online platform called “Boombox”, led and shared by a couple of friends.
A year later, a collaboration with these friends give birth to the first live internet broadcast in Switzerland. They take care of the technical part and I take care of the live performance. In ’97 and ’98 we make a series of webcasts called “Terrain Glissant”.
End of ’98 I decide to put my musical activities on pause. I stopped deejaying and I only performed on very rare occasions.
I did participate to a very few compilations and accepted the invitation in 2007 from Dmitry Vasilyev to release a Batchas CD on his Monochrome Vision label.
In 2008 my ears do not hurt as much as they did and I’m starting again to make some music in my studio.
Since then, I’m focusing on short sessions using Buchla, Serge, BugBrand, Synton or Scrotum Lab modular systems. I also have a lot of fun improvising with Ciat-Lonbarde gear.