Yann Tiersen - My Life In Modules

William J. Stokes:  Welcome to the Sound On Sound Electronic Music podcast channel. I'm William J. Stokes and this is My Life In Modules, a podcast about modular synthesis, where each episode I invite a guest to select the Eurorack modules that have meant the most to them and talk to me about why, before treating us to an exclusive performance using only that modest election. This episode, we welcome French Breton musical artist, multi-instrumentalist and synthesist Yann Tierson. A leading light of contemporary composition for three decades now, Yann has 20 genre fluid albums to his name, give or take, which together incorporate piano, traditional folk instrumentation, electronics, vocals and more. His work has also been known to feature the occasional guest, including The Divine Comedies Neil Hannon, the Cocteau Twins, Elizabeth Fraser, the great Jane Birkin, Sunn O)'s Stephen O'Malley and the excellent QUINQUIS. Many will recognise Yann's work from his wonderful soundtracks for cult classic films such as Wolfgang Becker's Goodbye Lenin and perhaps most famously, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, which saw him break onto the global stage in both the worlds of film and music. His latest album, Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour is an explorative survey of two poles of Yann's artistic output, half comprised of intimate and intense piano pieces and half of frenetic rhythmic electronic compositions. Welcome Yann. Yann Tierson: Hello. William J. Stokes:  Quite a drawn out introduction now that I listen to it back. Now something I think we need to dispel from the outset here, because I know I just introduced you mentioning Amélie, but I've read in interviews in the past that of course, you know, you garnered a lot of recognition through that, particularly outside of France, but you've also spent the last 20 years or so trying to remind people no, I'm not really a film composer. Yann Tierson: Yeah, because actually I didn't do any soundtrack for Amélie. It was just like the director just like use of my first albums and asking for me doing stuff for the movie, but I was releasing my, I think it was my fourth album at the time and I didn't have any time for the movie. So I just like gave him some unreleased track and he used like all tracks and to be honest I wasn't really aligning with the movie and the Amélie world, just too sweet, too old-fashioned I think, you know, it's film about in Paris and I think Paris, the good thing about this city is that it's really multicultural and there is people from every ethnicity and unfortunately it wasn't present on the movie and I think it's quite bad. William J. Stokes:  Well I mean it's, you know, now that you mentioned it is true, it's not a very diverse movie, it's a very kind of dated view of romantic Paris isn't it. Yann Tierson: Yeah and I never felt like really comfortable with the movie and even with the Jean-Pierre Jeunet-like world because there is this kind of nostalgia and stuff that I don't, you know, it's not my taste, I'm not really into that and actually it's been really hard to be linked to that because I think it's not present in my music and it's to be linked to a nostalgic film and then, you know, like suddenly people say oh yeah, it's not kind of nostalgic and everything and it's not so, okay. William J. Stokes:  Yeah, no totally. Yeah that's is, I mean, it's one of those things, isn't it? You just don't know what's gonna be the thing that's just gonna kind of, you know, take off into areas that you just never thought it would and suddenly you're having to kind of shake off some sort of reputation. But of course you know a lot of people love that music as well and it, I think it got to number one in the French album charts if I remember that soundtrack album, which is quite an amazing achievement for any film soundtrack but not even, well I've heard, I've actually read in the past, you haven't even described yourself as a composer. Yann Tierson: Oh no, because I'm not, I'm coming from, you know, I started to do music with my band and I was mainly playing guitar and it was like, you know, post punk kind of like nineties and I'm coming from that. Never, never, never composed anything. I mean it's just like I was really into sampling and I started to sample the, you know, acoustic instruments or orchestras and stuff and then I eventually did write some stuff for strings, but it's always been through, you know, kind of a more sampling electronic approach or, but not at first, like not, and I'm too lazy to be a composer. I'm not, I'm just like playing with sound, you know and having fun with that and I'm my, yeah, I'm not the kind of guy like standing in front of a piece of paper all day long, I just like turning knobs and stuff. William J. Stokes:  No, there is definitely a playfulness about what you do across your whole catalogue. Even that, you know, even the first sort of few albums where, you know, that Jeunet ended up, you know, falling in love with for the Amélie soundtrack. It was, is it Rue Des Cascardes, that record feels incredibly playful and explorative and almost kind of like just a collection of sort of miniature stories or something like that, that are kind of in this fanciful world. Yann Tiersen: When I started to do music I was really into really short pieces and really short songs and with time it's like the opposite now, just really is an album with five songs on one the album, you know, it's like, it's 11 minutes long, oh my god. William J. Stokes:  I mean that album is really, it's a really interesting and lovely little exploration of your sort of full catalogue, I mean, but it's not, at the time of recording it is not out but by the time you hear this dear listener, it will be out in the world and I think I'm right in thinking that The Liquid Hour half was mixed by someone I hugely respect and I interviewed him myself, actually really enjoyed interviewing him, Randall Dunn, is that right? Yann Tiersen: Yeah, yeah. William J. Stokes:  A brilliant producer and engineer who of course has worked a lot with Steven O'Malley and Sunn O), who you have also worked with. How did that come about? Yann Tiersen: It's first time that actually that my album is mixed that we're not in the same room because I'm used to to to work with Gareth and... William J. Stokes:  This is Gareth Jones, who we just before pressing record, we ascertained that he is a good mutual friend and someone we've both worked with a lot. I think at one point by the way, on that note, I seem to remember Gareth leaving a session with my band Voca Gentle and going straight to West Song to work with you on, I think it was Portrait. Yann Tiersen: Yes. I mean, we have working together since infinity, I would say. So it's been a while and for this album actually, I was like, because it was the piano side and the other and I was going on this sailing tour, every Summer I try to tour differently and so it wasn't possible to mix on ocean and yeah, I tried to be out a bit out of my comfort zone and friend family zone and so I worked with Randall, just like quite weird at the beginning because it was really good, but it was like, you know, I had never mixed an album like with someone being in the other side of the Atlantic and not being in the same room, so I was already what, but yeah, it was what I wanted to do, you know, like let the baby go and see what happens and I'm really happy with the result. William J. Stokes:  Well there is a kind of a theme on that album of this sort of smallness and bigness and letting go of control right and this kind of dialogue, it feels like it works really well that on the one side you've got these very introspective, intimate pieces and then the other side, you really did kind of explode it outwards, both in the making of it and in the way that you performed it. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, I mean the piano side, like the album is divided in two parts, so there is one, it's just piano and actually I just wanted to do a, for the first time you know, just piano and and try to be really simple and minimal and it's funny because we did the take and it was really close mic'd at that point that it was impossible to treat anything without kind of destroying the sound. Gareth tried and it was what, oh you did like lots of compression and he said no I didn't, I said sure? And I went to the mastering with the rough mixes and we tried to putting some EQs, some tiny bit of compression. It was impossible. So it's just the mics and that's it. William J. Stokes:  Yeah that's, yeah, so I mean, you can hear that in, it's so natural sounding. Yann Tiersen: And the second part, it's the, yeah, it was a long, long process and actually I started with trying to start the album using Bitwig on Linux. I don't know why, I didn't want to. I say okay, I will start my album on Linux, yes. Okay, so I did it and I just mangled like with like staying in the box and just like, you know, working with textures and digital side of things and then I went to the studio and then it, everything explode and I did use my synth and a lot of like four drum machine in every song. There is lots of this drums textures with an 808 and the Perkons. I fell in love with this Erica Synths. William J. Stokes:  Ah yes, the Erica Synth Perkons, yeah. Amazing drum machine that isn't it, a beast. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. It's funny because I was doing this tour in Europe and I was crashing at Erica Synth headquarters. I mean my tour, I was touring with my van and the goal was to sleep in people's garden. So I end up in Riga sleeping in the garden of like Erica Synths headquarters and in the morning I was like, oh my god, I need to go to the toilets but it's, there is nobody there. So I found the guy that I knew and said, I'm really sorry, but can I go to, can you open the, and we ended up having coffee and breakfast and I don't know why of course, which we are starting to talk about gears and we went in a basement and they have this amazing, you know, stage and PA that like that is completely crazy and to show me the PA just use the patterns and I don't know why I thought the Perkons was kind of a old fashioned drum machine, maybe because of the look and I was waahhh. William J. Stokes:  It does look quite old fashioned, yeah. Yann Tiersen: It was so good with the chance operation and you know, it's so intuitive. I fell completely in love and say can I buy one and so, and then it is really, really a big part of the album. William J. Stokes:  Oh great, that's a really nice little nugget to know actually, maybe I'll go and listen to it slightly differently now. Yann Tiersen: The album would've been completely different if I had have like toilets at that time, you know? William J. Stokes:  Yeah I mean, as I'm sure it's true for a lot of albums. OK, well before we get into your actual, the modules that you've chosen for this for this podcast, I wanna raise something with you. You spent quite a bit of your childhood in the town of Rennes which is an amazing place and it's home to, among lots of other things, Trans Musicales, which is an amazing festival set up by Jean-Louis Brossard I think, this cult figure in Rennes, very well respected a kind of, almost like a sort of a French Michael Evis meets John Peel sort of figure and you played, eventually you played Trans Musicales in 1998 I think and I am really happy to be able to say that I played the most recent one in December and I think it's important that we mention it because I feel like hardly anyone knows about it and it is one of the best festivals I've ever been to and I think it is honestly one of the best festivals out there. I mean for those unfamiliar with it, how can we describe it? Yann Tiersen: It's an amazing festival. It started in the 80s with Jean-Louis, Hervé and Béatrice and they did, yeah I'd say 80 band and then after the, just it's always been about discovery and Jean-Louis just like, you know, travel the world and is always like discovering new stuff. And I saw like, I saw Nirvana there Bleach period. William J. Stokes:  Amazing. Yann Tiersen: I saw ? and I mean he always program dance before they explode and still now I play at this festival and I'm so happy because it's always been, I played Kerber and I played where you played in the big warehouses. William J. Stokes:  Yeah, yeah. This is a big, sort of a big industrial estate just outside the center of town, even though the actual, the kind of the nucleus of the whole thing is the UBU Club right, where everything kind of kicked off. Yann Tiersen: Yeah and before it was like downtown and it was really good, but it was such a, just crazy because everybody was in the street and it was like, I dunno, like a revolution in Rennes for three, four days which is amazing and it's still amazing and yeah, I played those halls and it was so, you know, to say that Jean-Louis always like listening to the music a lot, at that time, I'd just released Kerber, which was a piano album kind of and I was preparing 11, which was completely electronic and I said to, Jean-Louis wanted to program me before but it was during Covid so I didn't do it and I said yeah, but I can play in the hall and he said yeah, but it's a piano album. I said Jean just listen to it and he listened to it and say yeah, great. And he's so courageous all the time and to do, he programmed Kanki on this edition, it's yeah, it's always I mean, it's amazing and it's a really big part of who I am actually because I grew up there with this huge festival every year and also yeah, during all year, you know, that there was so many bands playing in Rennes because of them and because of the festival, just yeah, great. William J. Stokes:  I think it was, I mean every year obviously there's gonna be lots of interviews with Jean-Louis and you know, I remember there was an article in la Libération this year, or last year rather, where he said, you know, I just like UFOs, I just like booking UFOs that no-one knows what they are and I just thought that was a lovely way of putting it because it really does, there's some, there's an amazing trust in the line that people go not having heard of half of it. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, yeah. That's crazy because it not that often that you get like, especially now you know, people like doing this kind of, taking this kind of risk, you know, maybe there is the guess who or... William J. Stokes:  Yeah, yeah and I managed to see Jean-Louis I think twice in like say hello twice. I was thinking this is the person who's, he's trying to see every single band that he can from side of stage, you know, he's probably the person most in demand there and I've somehow managed to see him twice in different places, amazing. Yann Tiersen: And you know what he's doing as well, it's like when there is bands playing in Ubu during the year, he is always there to welcome them with a glass of something and yeah. William J. Stokes:  I think Pastis if I'm not mistaken, normally.  Oh gosh, okay, we could go on about that but I'm glad that we were able to squeeze Trans Musicales into this episode because I think it's very important. Before we dive into your selection of modules I'm interested to hear a little bit about your amazing studio Eskal, which is on the island of Ouessant. This is a beautiful sort of retreat, it's got a venue inside, it's a sort of a bit of a paradise really. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, it is the disco of the island and then it closed in early 2000 and it is a ruin basically and always dream of like transform it and doing a studio there but it wasn't on sale, it just rotting and suddenly it was and so I bought it and then just like build a studio in it and as it was the disco we kept it open and it's also a venue, we do music lessons as well and... William J. Stokes: Oh amazing. Yann Tiersen: And next weekend we have the Diskoutal is called that, it's a modular weekend, so with lots of people like, you know, module builders and artists and stuff, so it's good. William J. Stokes: And are there many people who live on the island? Yann Tiersen: 800. William J. Stokes: Wow, that's very small. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. William J. Stokes: You must know all of them. Yann Tiersen: No not, almost. William J. Stokes: I can imagine it's good like when you're recording there, kind of you, you know, go out and get a cup of coffee in the day, you're gonna see, you know, the same people and they probably know that you are recording something, can ask how it's going. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, that's funny because like with the, I always managed to record in September, I don't know why, or mixing with Gareth and we were like and in September it is the, there is a music festival on the island, a big one and actually it's always been like me working and trying not to party and to go out and everybody's around completely smashed and drunk, so it's funny. William J. Stokes: Okay, let's dive into your selection of modules. Really interesting little set here of five modules and you started off fairly kind of classically the Serge NTO, the New Timbral Oscillator. This is kind of a real classic circuit that's been adapted into Eurorack format. Talk to me a little bit about that. Yann Tiersen: I love, you know, like I love oscillators and sources and touch kind of yeah. I used to actually, that's how I met Andreas Schneider, bill, because I was rehearsing in Berlin and at that time I had this stupid idea, you know, like Silver Apples, like I had two or three oscillators, old fashioned ones, like just with the knobs to do drums on stage and I really love like sources and just, you know, like sine waves or whatever like just like and I love, like also like West Coast, you know, this type of film. William J. Stokes: What do you sort of make of the way that, I mean that's, I'm thinking sort of Tiptop Audio recently, you know, putting a load of Buchla modules into Eurorack format and if I'm not mistaken, is it Random Source who has adapted the Serge into Eurorack? Yann Tiersen: Yeah. William J. Stokes: What's your take on the sort of, on the yeah, like the adaptation of these older, larger format circuits down into Eurorack? Yann Tiersen: I don't know, I didn't try the Tiptop. I got a Easel that I love. I'm getting a bit wiser model wise, so I didn't yeah, I thought okay, I got my, you know, like I got some variables, you know, modules. I got the Furthrrrr Generator Endorphin.es that I use a lot. William J. Stokes: I think it's interesting that, you know, the last episode of this podcast we had Tony Rolando on and we had an interesting part of that discussion, we had an interesting chat about how modular is very much departing from those kind of classic foundations with, you know, just filters and I dunno, ring modulators and oscillators and that kind of thing and VCAs and now there's, you know, granular processes and we've got different effects and lot, you know, Expert Sleepers Distings, which is sort of almost computers inside the system and there's this amazing, it's just exploded outwards into so many different types of module that it's just interesting when you kind of, you know, your selection is, the Serge in there sort of stands apart as this very classic bit of analogue synthesis, which is kind of an amazing thing really that Eurorack can take these really old school classics and make them work in perfect harmony with these brand new, something that came out, you know, one week ago. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, yeah. That's funny because my, you know, I'm trying to build a really, because I have a small setup for stage, but a smaller one because I want to be as light as possible and yeah, I had classic stuff and I just like bought for you know, space purpose is the 4ms MetaModule, which is almost completely William J. Stokes: Ah yeah. I haven't tried that actually. Yann Tiersen: I mean, that's great to, I think it'll be really good for utilities and you know, this kind of stuff and also maybe effects or sometimes I want to, it's good to have space, you know, and to spare it for really important stuff and then if you can go digital or virtual, like doesn't matter if the workflow is, you know? William J. Stokes: Absolutely yeah and also I think we're in a really good position where for those utilities that historically took up a load of space in the rack... Yann Tiersen: Exactly, yeah. William J. Stokes: Suddenly, you know, you can actually save that space for some really much more performative hands-on, you know, modules. Yann Tiersen: So I dunno, I didn't try that yet because I'm building the, so I would see maybe. William J. Stokes: Yeah well, you'll have to let me know how it goes, it does look very pretty that module with its little screen and all its little... Yann Tiersen: I know, I know. William J. Stokes: Which we love, of course we love. Okay, the next, talking of the classics, I mean the next module you've chosen is, it almost goes even further back, well actually no, that's not accurate to say, it doesn't go further back, but it goes similarly back to a classic era of music making and this is the Instruō and I'm gonna say this wrong as I always do with Instruo modules, the Lu, the Lúbadh, the Lúbadh. I feel like I should be doing a hrrr somewhere in there but... Yann Tiersen: Yeah, you know, as a, we raised our son in Breton language, which is a Celtic language, so yeah, I can't, I don't know how to pronounce Scottish Gaelic so... I love this module. It's the center of my live set actually. It's where, because it's really simple, you can do lots. I use it fairly simply on stage. William J. Stokes: This is, just for those unfamiliar, this is a tape sort ofinspired module that you can record and play back and well pretty much do anything you can do with tape right? Yann Tiersen: Yeah. I use it a lot as well in the studio and I did some, like where I did like really big patches like with like you know, lots of LFOs and stuff like Trent and it's crazy. I mean I love it. I love it that much, that's, and you get those two tapes you know, like it's, you can use it linked in stereo or you can separate like both, it's crazy. I didn't use the new firmware though where they... William J. Stokes: Yeah, there was a big firmware change, wasn't there? I'm not entirely sure what it was that they did differently. I know it was a significant one, but I don't have that module, so I wasn't one of the, sort of the lucky ones to experience it. Yann Tiersen: I think they, it's more like to be able to use it like in sync and more, you know, so it's not how I use it, so I'm keeping it free. William J. Stokes: Yeah, not better, just different. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. William J. Stokes: Yeah it's interesting, isn't it? I mean I love, there's a seemingly a kind of a renewed fascination with tape-style workflows across so many things now. I mean, from the OP-1 to the, there's the S-4, the Torso Electronics S-4, that's kind of a virtual four track, it's kind of designed to be. Yann Tiersen: Oh it's funny, your friend just came with it today on the island. William J. Stokes: Oh really, wow. Yann Tiersen: An Italian friend and he said, oh yeah I got this and it was the first time I was looking and you mention it same day. Crazy. William J. Stokes: Yeah, It's an interesting one because it's kind of, you know, the limit it's the, you know, you record into the buffer and there's sound on sound that you can, you know, implement, sound on sound recording and you know, but you only get four tracks and once you delete something it's deleted forever and these kinds of things. And in the same way, you know, there's the Make Noise Morphagene, there's the, I think it's called the Stardust, a new Qu-Bit module, a similar kind of tape sort of style workflow. But what is it do you think about these kinds of workflows that people are falling in love with again? Yann Tiersen: I love tapes but you know I used to record, like I got two, I got like a 16 track GH16 and a Studer and I also have two Revoxes and I used to do loops and I spent so many times, like not that long ago I went through this tape crazy year, period when I was recording and spending the whole day, I was like cutting the tapes, putting it in the trash and then, you know, stick it together randomly and it was stupid, it wasn't working. Sometimes it was, but sometimes it was too tiny and I used it though but, so yeah I mean, it's good to be able to have this kind of workflow, but not spending the day cutting tapes. William J. Stokes: None of the hassle. But it has, I mean, it's got such a character and as far as I remember, the DSP on the Lúbadh is a really interesting kind of DSP, it's slightly degrades things as far as I remember, especially the more that you record over the sound, is that right? Yann Tiersen: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's really organic and it's, yeah, I love it. William J. Stokes: Okay, so from that onto something very different but equally creative, a real, you know, such an important developer, Mutable Instruments, The Beads. This is a granular processor, kind of descended from clouds. This is clearly, you know, an important module for you. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, I've been using it a lot. It's kind of, yeah, it's always in my process chain. Actually I have this, you know, looper from Instruō and I also like have a chain where it's another module from TouellSkouarn, it's a friend of mine, it's amazing filter, stereo filter distortion and the beat as well and it's always cross-fading to dry signal to this lush kind of, yeah. William J. Stokes: Oh amazing. Even, I mean the design of those instruments is so amazing, even the reverb is a really distinctive flavour of reverb. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, yeah. I think I was on the verge to put Marbles as well on the list but I went for, you know, because I was thinking okay I can do a generative patch maybe, but I was like yeah, but that's not the module I usually use and I was more into doing a live thing, yeah. William J. Stokes: Well thank-you for staying true to the brief of the podcast, we are much appreciative. Okay and again talking about wet signals and dry signals and blending them, the perfect accompaniment to that, your next module, the Black Stereo Delay from Erica Synths. This is a very much a, this is like a clean hi-fi digital delay, very different to the sort of the tapey sort of granular world that we've just been talking about. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, but that's my favorite delay, I think it sounds really good. I like the tap thing as well that you can sync it but it's not a clock, I mean it's, I love this delay a lot. I have two of those, I mean I have a spare one that's very important in my setup and yeah, there is no, I tried a lot of delays and I think it's one of the really good one. William J. Stokes: It's funny, I always think that with delays, it's the kind of effect that is so, it's so mysterious, it will always be mysterious, it will always be interesting and it can become the real center of a sound and it can be, you know, as well as just a sort of, in a bit of a spatial effect, there's so much character, I always think for me it's often the gain staging of it. If I have to like drive something in too hard or, you know, or the opposite if it's, you know, if it's reading a signal super hot or something, you know, I find it really difficult to work with, but when you hit one that just, it just works with what you're doing and it's kind of really able to read your signals as you are sort of almost as you are coming up with ideas, you can send them into something and it will just blossom with all the kind of movement and character and space that you want. There's something about it isn't there, that you kind of have to, you just have to try out as many as you can until you find the one that really works with how you work. Yann Tiersen: Yeah and they all, yeah, they're strange creatures because they all have their own personality and it's true sometimes you just use delays and I don't like them. William J. Stokes: Yeah and it's hard to say why. Yann Tiersen: Yeah because everything on paper, it's like and even you listen to it and you say well it's good and then within the track or it's not working and other ones it's just like as you said, you know, like this Erica Synths delay is a digital one, it's like, but I don't know, it's quite warm and I love it. William J. Stokes: Yeah, no totally. It's, I love, yeah, it's great, I mean that and sometimes just like you have, you gotta hold your hands up and just say you know what, there are so many out there that I could have chosen but this is the one I have and I love it, you know. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. William J. Stokes: It's really important, especially in modular. I was, that's something that is really important, I think too. It's one of the things about this podcast that I sort of, I like the format of it because it doesn't say, you know, out of all, it doesn't sort of encourage anyone to think outside to all the possibilities of all the other types of modules they could have, it's about choosing something and working with it as best you can and you know, it's so easy to always think about everything else that you could get instead of the thing you've got. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. Modular wisdom. William J. Stokes: I mean I feel, do you know, I think this about streaming now though as well with, you know, Spotify, I feel the clangerous voices of all the other songs I could be listening to at any one moment or you know, if you're listening to a vinyl you don't have that, you don't have, you know, every song ever saying hey, you could be listening to this, you could be listening to this. You just put something on and you've committed to it and you're listening to it and that's such a special thing. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, it's true, yeah. William J. Stokes: Yeah, yeah, we could get into that, yeah. Yann Tiersen: I'm a, yeah, no, no, no, but because I've been, you know, I'm trying to be reasonable now with modules but yeah, I started to feel that and then not trying too much stuff and yeah. William J. Stokes: Okay, so last module that you've chosen, you mentioned it earlier, TouellSkouarn, the Ar Merc'het Brao which is a, that's a Breton... Yann Tiersen: The Ar Merc'het Brao, it's like the beautiful girl. William J. Stokes: This is, yeah, amazing jewel filter overdrive. So talk to me about this really, really interesting, in fact, I'm looking at my notes here, the Lúbadh and the Ar Merc'het Brao kind of look quite good next to each other on the page I think, almost you know, the Celtic languages coming together there. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, Celtic team. It's a Gaël. Gaël is one of my TouellSkouarn, Gaël is one of my friend. He is organising the modular festival that we have next weekend and he did this module and I, yeah I, the same, I have it for everything and it's, I love the drive and it's, you know I have this discourse fader and it's really, it's like sometimes I go really, on stage I bring lots of distortion and it's always like kind of, so I love it, so beautiful, so you know like grainy, like really can really be strong and I love it. William J. Stokes: They definitely, I mean, TouellSkouarn really push the boundaries with, particularly with it seems to me, with distortion, really like as a developer there's a lot of modules that are kind of almost designed to be punished a little. They've got, if I'm not mistaken, they've got tubes in one of their drive modules, for example. I mean, that's just so awesome. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. No, it's really good and they start with a distortion that was called the Strakal Brulu and it's a really good module as well, but really wide, wide, you know, you can just, it's completely crazy and what I like it's like this, with this filter it's like kind of contained a bit, still wide, can be really, really harming people's ear but you can still manage because I did use the distortion on live and sometimes it was like exploding, but it's good, it's amazing module. William J. Stokes: I mean, I have a real fascination with things in stereo. I just think there's something about when a module is in stereo, it has like a kind of, there's a mystery to it that is, particularly when it comes to filtering because stereo filtering is almost, it's a totally different type of process, it's kind of, it really challenges you to think about things in a slightly different way and as far as I'm aware this particular module has, it's both in stereo but it's also, you can set the different sides of the field to different filter responses, is that right? Yann Tiersen: Yeah, yeah. William J. Stokes: So you can have this really interesting sort of, not just the processing of harmonic distortion but also you're actually manipulating the frequencies in the stereo field differently, which can make for some really wild kind of movement around your head. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. William J. Stokes: It's got like a notch filter on it as well, like a low pass, high pass, is that right? I'm not, I haven't used this module before. Yann Tiersen: Yeah. No, it's great. It's amazing. William J. Stokes: Well, Yann Tiersen, thank-you so much for coming on and joining me to talk about your life in modules. Yann Tiersen: Thank-you. William J. Stokes: It's been a real pleasure chatting and I'm really excited to hear what you do with this selection. Yann Tiersen: Yeah, hope you will like it. Thank you for listening. Be sure to check out the show notes page for this episode where you'll find further information along with web links and details of all our other episodes. And just before you go, let me point you to soundonsound.com/podcasts where you can explore what's playing on our other channels as well. My name is William J. Stokes and this has been a production for Sound on Sound Magazine.