Presenting J. S. Bach's French Suite No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814 arranged for two analogue synthesisers by Stace Constantinou.

(Dual mono recording).

I began this project in February 2019. At the time the idea was that as I love a) Bach’s music and b) synthesisers/ electronic music, I thought that c) I’d combine them for a fun little project in between doing other things. I thought it would be easy. Anyhoo...getting on for three and half years later it's finished!

Oh, and of course I’m not the first to try. There are the renowned Wendy Carlos ‘Switched-On Bach’ series made by and making famous the Moog synthesiser, including The Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, and Air On A G String, of course.

But the French Suites, I as far as I know, have not been arranged in this way before. And I love the French Suites - not to mention the English Suites, and other lesser known keyboards works of J.S Bach.

I started this project using Logic Pro software. At my finger tips I was offered the power and possibility to not only play, but also arrange, orchestrate and produce this incredible Baroque music, for the 21st Century - what excitement!

Today, Bach's keyboard music perhaps most closely associated with the sound of the Steinway Grand piano. But, no such instrument existed in Bach's day. Listening back to Bach's music on 'authentic instruments of his time', is interesting. But, what if Bach's keyboard music was composed to be realised using a synthesiser, some several hundred years later! Was Bach's music written to be played on a Moog!?

After the initial excitement of making the Allemande and first Minute. And realising that the result was a Kitsch in-the-box electronic software mashup, the project languished.

At some point in the last year I realised that the sound of the Moog synthesiser, rather than VSTs was needed. So using my newly purchased Moog Grandmother, a beautiful instrument (somewhat in vein of the Moog Mini), I set to work. This synthesiser makes the most amazing bass sound.

But the Moog wasn’t working for the alto and soprano parts. So after much experimenting and deliberation. And since finding out by chance that my first ever synthesiser, an AX73, was in fact analogue (can you believe! - I bought it when I was thirteen and thought it was digital), I went about trying to use this for the upper lines. I went through all 99 presents to see if any would work with the Moog parts. And I did find some great sound combinations, that you can now hear on this album.

Hopefully you love J. S Bach and electronic music as much as I do, and that you find some value in my humble rendition.

Stace Constantinou
October, 2022

Ps - I mentioned to a friend I was making this album. Said I was thinking of calling it ‘Electrifying Bach’ he instantly snorted ‘Electrocuting Bach more like’ which I thought was quite funny, so have used that title instead.

PPs - thanks to Jorb, who loves gear...By watching his Youtube channel I found out that my AKAI AX73 is analogue, so inspired me to use that (and finally finish this project):
www.youtube.com/c/JorbLovesGear/featured