Bernard Torelli (13 October 1955 – 18 January 2016) was a French guitarist, composer, audio engineer and record producer.
Life and career
He was born in
Nice
Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million[Jean-Pierre Massiera
Jean-Pierre Massiera (10 July 1941 – 28 December 2019),Jean Garand, Larsen Nick, Liner notes for ''Jean-Pierre Massiera: Psychoses Freakoid (1963-1978)'', Mucho Gusto Records, 2008 sometimes referred to by his initials JPM, was a French mus ...]
. When Massiera established a new
16-track
Multitrack recording (MTR), also known as multitracking, is a method of sound recording developed in 1955 that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources or of sound sources recorded at different times to create a cohesive who ...
recording studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
in
Antibes
Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...
, Torelli began recording with him as guitarist, playing on the 1974
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
''Visitors''. Torelli joined the band
Rockets
A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
in 1976, and featured on
their debut album.
[
The following year, he played on another album coordinated by Massiera, ''Atlantide'', and then on the cult ]psychedelic
Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluci ...
album ''L'Etrange Mr. Whinster'', credited to Horrific Child. Torelli worked with the prolific Massiera as musician, composer, arranger and occasionally co-producer, on numerous prog rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...
and space disco
Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, pop, ...
albums and projects during the late 1970s. These included the albums ''Turn Radio On'', ''Phantasmes'', ''Space Woman'' (credited to the act Herman's Rocket), ''Galactic Soul'' (credited to Venus Gang), and singer Jessy Joyce's ''J. Joyce & Co.'', among others. On the 1978 prog rock album ''Human Egg'', Torelli played guitar, bass and keyboards.[ Max Cole, "A Guide to the Unhinged Genius of Jean Pierre Massiera", ''Red Bull Music Academy'', 14 January 2015]
Retrieved 7 December 2019[ Savinov, "Jean-Pierre Massiera", ''JPMDiscogs'']
Retrieved 7 December 2019 In the 1970s, Torelli also worked as a session musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
in Paris, with Manu Dibango
Emmanuel N'Djoké "Manu" Dibango (12 December 1933 – 24 March 2020) was a Cameroonian musician and songwriter who played saxophone and vibraphone. He developed a musical style fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Cameroonian music. His father w ...
among others.["Bernard Torelli", ''LesRockets.com'']
Retrieved 8 December 2019
In the early 1980s, Torelli moved to California. After he was introduced to French singer Michel Polnareff
Michel Polnareff (born 3 July 1944) is a French singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1960s. He is noted for integrating rock and pop elements into his early work. He wrote pop hits such as "La Poupée qui fait non" and "Love Me, Ple ...
, he worked with him as his guitarist and engineer. He also worked with Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fus ...
, the jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...
band CAB, and others. He later worked as a recording engineer at Track Star Studios in San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
. Around 2000, he founded the software
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
company Nomad Factory, responsible for creating programs and software for audio recording
Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording t ...
, mixing and mastering. This included developing audio software processors and plug-ins for DAWs (digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW ) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pr ...
) such as Cubase
Cubase is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by Steinberg for music and MIDI recording, arranging and editing. The first version, which was originally only a MIDI sequencer and ran on the Atari ST computer, was released in 1989. Cut-do ...
and Pro Tools
Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
.[ "RIP Bernie Torelli, founder of Nomad Factory", ''Gearslutz,com'', 20 January 2016]
Retrieved 8 December 2019
In 2016, Torelli died as a result of cancer, aged 60.[
]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torelli, Bernard
1955 births
2016 deaths
French record producers
French rock guitarists
French audio engineers