Bernard Szajner

French electronic and visual artist. Born in Grenoble, France, on June 27, 1944. Passed away in La Rochelle on August 31, 2026. Szajner first made his name as a lighting and visual effects designer for artists such Magma, Gong, Stomu Yamash'ta and The Who. During the 1970s he moved on from conventional lighting technology and pioneered the creative and commercial use of lasers, also inventing a novel laser harp (or ‘Syeringe’), thus reversing the orthodox logic of light triggered by music, to create music triggered by light, as well as controlling sound in a manner impossible with conventional synthesizers, and delivering a wider octave range. Around the mid 1980s, Szajner abandoned music for 2 decades and as a result his music lapsed into relative obscurity. However, he remained active "on stage" and he also kept making music, without finding a label to release it. In the 2000s, he recorded at least 4 albums, viz. Shameless Clichés; Shadow Boxing Thieves; Death And Other Small Illusions; and Bizarre Pieces For Grand Piano And Invisible Pianist. In 2009, James Nice of LTM wrote that "new music is expected from Szajner in 2009" but those four albums haven't seen a release yet.