The Electronic Composer Who Reimagined 'Dune' As Music

French electronic musician and avant-garde artist Bernard Szajner is no household name in the English-speaking world. But the man described as the "French Brian Eno" is a true digital renaissance man, working with artistic dexterity across electronic music, art installations, and experimental electronic instrument creation.

With the recent reissue of his seminal 1978 album Visions of Dune, it's as good a time as any to revisit the experimental, world-building mind of Bernard Szajner. In doing so, we might begin to understand why he would attempt to soundtrack Frank Herbert's Dune in the first place, but to also take a deep dive into what compels him to bend minds and reorder consciousness.

Szajner can't remember the exact year he read Dune, but when he decided to crack open the tome, it was already a "trendy" novel in France. Everyone was reading and talking about it. Szajner was no exception. And, like many others who have encountered the book over the years, he was extremely fascinated by Herbert's ideas.

"It was a completely different world from ours," said Szajner. "[Y]et it reflected the same envy, threats, as well as the same wrongdoings and wonderful things that can happen on Earth. It was parallel to our world, but different."

At the time, Szajner was no composer. Indeed, by his own estimation he had no relationship with music, except for the light shows he created for rock groups of the time, principally Magma and Gong, but also The Who.

After two or three years of noting a lack of interest in, as he said, the "perfect blending of visions and music," Szajner decided that if the rock groups weren't going to do it, he'd do it himself.

"I had magic in my hands when I turned knobs and they generated sounds," he said.

Despite Szajner's complete unfamiliarity with musical instruments, a friend suggested he borrow some synthesizers. So he went home with a few Oberheim sequencers and a Revox two-track, reel-to-reel recorder, and mucked about on them.

"At that time, Moog synths were trying to imitate natural instrument sounds," Szajner said. "I wanted to create new sounds that could generate new forms of listening."

Two years after being introduced to analogue synthesizers, Szajner encountered legendary science fiction author Samuel R. Delany's proto-cyberpunk novel Nova. Within the novel, Delany details an instrument called the "sensory syrynx," which Szajner likes to describe as a form of electronic harp, after his own instrument, which allows him to "generate music from light."

In the book, the character The Mouse uses the sensory syrynx to create three-dimensional holographic illusions and music, but also deploys scent to add to its hypnotic effect on his audience.

While Szajner would not conjure holographic visuals sensory syrynx-style for Visions of Dune, the fictional instrument did inspire his conceptual approach for the album and a template for future work: to trigger people's imagination with sound and, later, other media.

"I had magic in my hands when I turned knobs and they generated sounds," Szajner reminisced. "I had no idea about tempo, and none of these machines were at the right tempo, so I slowed down some of the tapes to fit with tother loops."

Ultimately, Szajner created hundreds of loops for Visions of Dune. After making them, he'd try to think about what he was actually trying to express with the loops. Should the loops pair up with a character, group of people, or a place? Should they do something else? Because of analogue tap hiss, Szajner was limited as far as the number of mix-downs he could execute, but he did as many as possible, and occasionally incorporated the tape hiss because he liked the sound.

"I had rough and harsh sounds, then cute and beautiful sounds that everyone was trying to produce at the time," he said. "Today I'm doing the same thing in a way, but with new machines. The sounds are harsher now."

One of Szajner's crowning achievements on Visions of Dune is "Duke," a track that didn't make it on the album. Along with the track "Spice," the song was dismissed by his label at the time as "too futuristic." While it certainly features an atonality, which wasn't exactly common at the time, "Duke" also features a really shimmering tone and texture that is nothing, if not beautiful.

And if there is a major theme that cuts across Szajner's work, it's the idea of world-building. It started before Visions of Dune and permeates his current work. Whether he's creating new music, art installations, or digital works, they all have a single aim that comes from a question Szajner has long asked himself: is it possible to blur the minds of the people, creating open worlds where people's pure imaginations take over, allowing them to walk around for a little while within them?

"It relates to the way you see life," Szajner said. "Do you see life as it is, or as it can be imagined? I prefer to see it as it can be imagined. If you can imagine it, then you can start building it up and creating it."

Which is why Szajner was initially surprised that InFiné's Alexandre Cazac and Yannick Matray would want to reissue Visions of Dune. The "old material," as he describes it, is an already fully-built or created world, and Szajner wants nothing more than to create new worlds and realities. Then it dawned on him that people go to museums to see ancient works of art, so perhaps Visions of Dune could have value within this context.

"I failed to see this until Alexandre and Yannick told me that even though Visions of Dune was made 35 years ago, it's perfectly contemporary and transcends time," Szajner said. "If we succeed, it will help us have access to a new generation of listeners. I don't know if it will work, but I agree with the principle."

Looking to the future, Szajner believes he's getting closer to creating instruments like The Mouse's sensory syrynx. Though it would be more accurate to say that he's nearer to Nova's brain-space ship piloting interface.

With one new instrument, Szajner uses a wristband outfitted with a micro-computer system transmitting WiFi signals to his MacBook. With a turn of the wrist or bodily movement, he can generate music and sound. Szajner said that he has created two other instruments that are more complex and "physical."

On September 18, Szajner and Almeeva will present their EVOLUTION projectat Centre Pompedou, the biggest contemporary art museum in Paris. It will be, as Szajner insists, a one-hour performance not a concert.

Szajner described it as a continuous storyline or piece of text that he sings. In addition to the premiere of his three new instruments, Szajner will, for the first time in many years, present visuals, which he directed and organized.

"It was only this year that I've been able to achieve my dream, some 35 years later," Szajner said. "There is harmony, synergy, and there is fulfillment in what I'm doing."