André Stordeur
André Stordeur was born in 1941. He began his musical career as a jazz drummer in 1959 when he joined the quartet of saxophonist John Van Rymenant.
At the beginning of the 1970s, André Stordeur turned to electronic music, which he discovered through the work of American composer Morton Subotnick. He participates in the avant-garde musical ensemble Studio Voor Experimentele Muziek (S.E.M), founded in Antwerp by Joris De Laet, where he rubs shoulders with composers Dirk Veulemans, Paul Andriaenssens, Karel Goeyvaertsn Lucien Goethals and Serge Vostockt.
In 1973, he founded his own electronic music studio in Brussels, Studio Synthesis. He composed the music for the film Office Baroque dedicated to the American architect Gordon Matta-Clark, directed by Eric Convents and Roger Steylaerts in 1977.
In 1979, he collaborated with the Belgian composer Paul-Baudouin Michel for the composition of an electroacoustic piece entitled Phraseologie, recorded at the electronic music studio of the University of Ghent. It was that same year that he published this album 18 Days on Igloo.
At the beginning of the 80s, he began to compose exclusively on the Serge modular synthesizer. In particular, he uses a Serge 1980 prototype designed especially for him by Serge Tcherepnin, creator of the Serge Modular and founder of the company Serge Modular Music Systems, for which André Stordeur becomes the official consultant for Europe.
In 1981, he composed the music for the documentary From Zaire to Congo, directed by Christian Mesnil. The same year, he studied at IRCAM with David Wessel, while teaching modular synthesis at the American Cultural Center in Paris. He then left for the United States to follow the teachings of Morton Subotnick, mainly known for Silver Apples of the Moon, the first work of electronic music accredited by a label.
André Stordeur’s work leaves an important place for improvisation, for the exploration of sound textures which he arranges in experimental, abstract and meditative compositions.
In 1997, André Stordeur published The Art of Analog Modular Synthesis by Voltage Control: a guide to everything modular. From 1996 to 2005, he ran the website The Analog Cottage, dedicated to sound synthesis. The Sub Rosa label reissued his works in 2015.
He died in Brussels on April 7, 2020.
