Electron ~ Bernardo Bacavitch

Electron (Tape1-recorded between July-September 1971)
1. Electron 1 00:00
2. Electron 2 06:19
3. Electron 3 08:57
4. Electron 4 13:13
5. Electron 5 17:35
6. Electron 6 20:31
7. Electron 7 26:39

Bernardo Bacavitch was born in Montpellier, France in 1949. Growing up, Bernardo was fascinated by sound, and particularly the wireless. As a twelve-year-old boy Bernardo would turn the dial on the wireless to move between stations to create his own sounds. He also had a passion for nature and science.

At the age of Twenty in 1969 he moved to Paris to study Painting, while at the college he happened to enter the music room, where the teacher Eric Gauthier had an oscillator machine and a piano which he had modified. Bacavitch was intrigued and spent a lot of his free time in the room experimenting with the instruments.

Gauthier was an avid follower of Pierre Schafer and was also a musician who often visited a recording studio in Paris owned by Marc Chabot. Chabot would prove to be an invaluable ally to Bacavitch. He allowed Bacavitch time in the studio to record, Bernardo had to clean the studio and answer messages. His payment being free time with a lot of electronic equipment.

Over the course of years Bernardo recorded hundreds of hours of experimental electronics, he kept all the tapes and numbered them accordingly. He never released any of them, as he declared nobody would be interested.

That’s where I came in, I met Bernardo in Oxfordshire, England, where he now lives. He, like myself are avid walkers and we both love being out in nature. He was recording sounds of the river nearby
We started communicating one sunny day five years ago, where I discovered he had been an experimental electronic musician. He didn’t say too much about this and I said I would love to hear his recordings. He at first said, oh no please, you have much more better things to do than listen to my electronic mess. I explained that I was a music engineer and lecturer and would love to hear his compositions. He eventually gave in and allowed me to visit his home which is quiet country cottage. He has some equipment in there, an eight-track recording machine and very basic rhythm machine and small modular synth. He uses a delay and reverb unit, which both are antiques.

Upon hearing his recordings, I was bowled over by the use of sound and how the sounds meld together to create a cold, emotionless landscape. The treated piano also added a haunting element to the music, this was just Tape 1.

I said we must transfer these to digital and release them for someone to hear them, Bernardo being Bernardo at first resisted but eventually I persuaded him saying you will be able to hear your work in a different way. So, we have set about doing this and it’s a process we continue to engage with.

Bernardo is very quiet and very a reclusive man and would like you all to enjoy his work.

Brian Miller.
credits
released January 15, 2025

All sound by Bernardo Pierre Bacavitch

Re-mix and engineering by Brian Miller

Album Artwork designed by Mary Miller in collaboration with Bernardo Pierre Bacavitch

First recorded in 1971 in Paris.