Polyphonic Size -

Polyphonic Size was a Belgian synthpop project centered on vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Roger-Marc Vande Voorde, with lyrics supplied throughout by Dominique Buxin. Between 1979 and 1982 the project released four EPs and a cluster of singles, mostly on the small-press Belgian and French labels Sandwich and New Rose, which also issued the 1982 debut full-length Vivre pour Chaque Instant. A 1984 Virgin subsidiary deal produced the second album Walking Everywhere, after which the band returned to New Rose for their 1988 release The Overnight Day.

Members: Roger-Marc Vande Voorde (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Dominique Buxin (lyrics), Daniel “B” Bressanutti (keyboards, 1979-81), Régine K (vocals, 1979), Martine Bourlée (vocals, 1981-91), France Lhermitte (vocals, 1981-84), Kloot Per W (bass, 1981-84), Jean-Marc Lederman (keyboards, 1981), Glen Vande Voorde (bass, 1984-91)

Background

Roger-Marc Vande Voorde was born in Charleroi, Belgium in 1959. As a teenager he spent time near Cologne, Germany, where a fixation on the Rolling Stones pushed him toward the guitar and into a succession of local bands — Berk, Reynolds, Magnetix, and Melody — that worked through rock classics from the previous decade. Back in Belgium in 1978, he enrolled in psychology studies and formed the Cookies with bassist Johan Van Mullen and drummer Michel Verbeek, writing original material in a punk and new wave vein and moving into the Brussels punk scene.

Alongside the Cookies, Vande Voorde assembled a looser electronic unit, the Oblik Mouvement, built around Kraftwerk and Devo as reference points. Among its participants were Daniel Bressanutti, who later recorded as Prothese and then anchored Front 242, and Michel Lambot, who ran a Brussels record shop called Casablanca Moon and would later found Play It Again Sam Records. The Oblik Mouvement remained a concept rather than a working band, but Vande Voorde filled notebooks with sketches and ideas that would feed directly into Polyphonic Size.

Bressanutti pointed Vande Voorde toward early affordable Korg synthesizers at the Brussels music shop Hill’s Music where he worked. Vande Voorde acquired equipment and turned his room into a home studio. The lyricist Dominique Buxin, whom Vande Voorde had met in Germany during the Melody period — Buxin had been loosely affiliated with a Cologne band called Kolossal — joined as a permanent collaborator. Buxin never appeared on stage or on sleeve artwork, but wrote virtually all the project’s lyrics throughout its existence.

Algorythmic (EP)

Polyphonic Size debuted with the Algorythmic EP in December 1979 on Sandwich Records, a small underground label founded by Michel Lambot.

The four tracks are compact pieces built on synthesizer and electronic percussion, with vocals delivered in French and English against spare, minimal arrangements. Buxin wrote the lyrics throughout.

A1. “Saison”
A2. “Space Rejection”

B1. “Mode”
B2. “Plage Privée”

Vande Voorde wrote, performed, produced, and designed the sleeve artwork. Engineer Jean-Pierre Swalens recorded and mixed the session in October 1979 at the Nobody Studio in Brussels.

Pragmatic Songs (EP)

In February 1980, Polyphonic Size released Pragmatic Songs, their second four-track EP on Sandwich Records.

Vande Voorde again produced and performed, with one vocal guest: Régine K, who sang “Ommatidia” to her own lyrics. The remaining three tracks carry Buxin lyrics. “Travelling Things” departs from the EP’s electronic framework into a collage of taped dialogues, sirens, and electronics.

A1. “Logique Polygonale” — Buxin
A2. “Ommatidia” — Régine K

B1. “Party” — Buxin
B2. “Travelling Things”

Polyphonic Size recorded the EP with engineer J.P. Swalens. J-P Thomsin handled interior design; Vande Voorde designed the cover and shot the photography.

“Nagasaki Mon Amour” / “Hiroshima 1945”

While editing his Belgian Stranglers fanzine Strangled, Vande Voorde had met Jean-Jacques Burnel backstage at a Cologne concert in 1978 and sent him the first two EPs. Burnel, who had recently recorded his solo electronic album Euroman Cometh, offered to produce the next Polyphonic Size single.

A. “Nagasaki Mon Amour”
B. “Hiroshima 1945”

The session took place in England in April 1980 with Perry Morgan engineering. Sandwich released “Nagasaki Mon Amour” backed with “Hiroshima 1945” on May 22, 1980, with the A-side mastered at 45 RPM and the B-side at 33 RPM.

PS (EP)

In early 1981, following a summer trip to Japan where Vande Voorde met members of YMO including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Polyphonic Size reconvened for a new maxi-single. The lineup expanded for the first time: keyboardist Jean-Marc Lederman and vocalist Martine Bourlée — also Vande Voorde’s partner — joined him in the studio, with Burnel producing. Sandwich released the twelve-inch PS in May 1981 in two picture sleeves, one red and one black.

The five tracks include a robotic reworking of the Rolling Stones‘ “Mother’s Little Helper” — Vande Voorde inscribed “Fuck the Stones” in the matrix runout — alongside “Girlscout,” sung with an English vocalist, the Kraftwerk-inflected “Men & Construction,” the tour opener “On the Way to Medora,” and a new version of the debut EP’s “Saison.”

A1. “Mother’s Little Helper” — Jagger/Richards
A2. “Girlscout”

B1. “Men & Construction”
B2. “On the Way to Medora”
B3. “Saison”

Polyphonic Size gave its first live performance on April 3, 1981, at a Brussels festival billed as the First Belgian Rhythm Box Contest, alongside Etat Brut, Nausea, Pseudo Code, and Snowy Red. The set ran without a drummer — rhythm tracks played from cassette — with France Lhermitte and Bernard Dradin sharing vocal duties alongside Vande Voorde, and Kloot Per W on bass. Bernard Dradin, later of Noh Mask, opened with a masked, high-speed reading of “Space Rejection.”

Live for Each Moment / Vivre pour Chaque Instant

Polyphonic Size released its debut album, Vivre pour Chaque Instant, in September 1982, on Sandwich Records in Belgium and New Rose Records in France, each with a distinct picture sleeve.

Vande Voorde composed all tracks except the Luc Van Acker–written opener “Zas” and the closing “Je T’ai Toujours Aimée,” co-written with Burnel; Buxin wrote all the lyrics. The album centers on synthesizer, guitar, and layered vocals in French and English, with Kloot Per W as the rhythmic anchor and no live drums. Burnel produced, contributed bass and backing vocals throughout, and took lead vocals on two tracks. Luc Van Acker played guitar; David Salamon of Arbeid Adelt contributed saxophone on “Action Man”; Phil Wauqaire played stick bass on “Digital Dance.”

“Winston & Julia” sets Buxin’s English-language précis of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four against Burnel’s lead vocal — Burnel stepped in after several attempts by the band proved unsatisfactory, recorded the song, and the take was kept. “Je T’ai Toujours Aimée” came together in a matter of hours at the session’s end, when Michel Lambot pointed out the album was a track short; Burnel selected the lyric from Buxin’s notebook, performed lead vocals, and also played bass.

A1. “Zas” — Van Acker (3:28)
A2. “Rendez-Vous” (3:09)
A3. “Winston & Julia” (4:34)
A4. “King of Hong-Kong” (4:11)
A5. “N.B.C. GmbH” (3:54)

B1. “Action Man” (5:31)
B2. “Night Is Coming On” (4:06)
B3. “Le Temps du Swing” (6:18)
B4. “Je T’ai Toujours Aimée” — Burnel/Vande Voorde (3:19)

Polyphonic Size recorded Live for Each Moment / Vivre pour Chaque Instant in Belgium between February and April 1982 with producer Jean-Jacques Burnel. Eric Peereman photographed the band for the sleeve.

Sandwich issued the album in a sleeve that reproduces El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid (The Third of May 1808 in Madrid), an 1814 oil on canvas by Romantic painter Francisco Goya (1746–1828), depicting the execution of Spanish civilians by French troops in Madrid during the Peninsular War. The New Rose pressing referenced the work of Italian artist Lucio Fontana.

New Rose issued a companion seven-inch in September 1982 pairing “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Winston & Julia,” and “RDA-RFA (Dans les Gares).” A December 1982 twelve-inch on Lark/Sandwich collected a remixed “Winston & Julia” with “Je T’ai Toujours Aimée” and a studio improvisation, “Parties Dance,” its lyric supplied by Buxin. New Rose simultaneously issued “Je T’ai Toujours Aimée” backed with “Action Man” as a seven-inch, with a second pressing distributed as a free promo.

The band premiered live material on October 29, 1982 in Ghent, then performed at the Paris venue Bains Douches on November 4, a set broadcast on France Inter radio.

Walking Everywhere

Polyphonic Size signed to Clouseau Musique, a small Virgin Records subsidiary managed by Philippe Constantin, in May 1983. The album appeared in January 1984 on Virgin.

Vande Voorde composed the music, with Buxin providing lyrics across all nine tracks. Burnel co-wrote and sang uncredited on “Irrigation” and “Walking Class Hero”; Daniel Bressanutti programmed synthesizers; Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers appeared among additional guests. The album’s sequence moves across European, American, African, and Middle Eastern settings — “Brussels Waltz,” “Le Rocker de la CIA,” “Irrigation,” and “Mohammed & Sarah” each locate themselves geographically through their titles and lyrical content. Gary Lucas engineered; the album was mixed at Spaceward Studios.

A1. “Brussels Waltz” (1:57)
A2. “Le Rabatteur des Sectes” (4:27)
A3. “Irrigation” (4:06) — Burnel/Vande Voorde
A4. “Europe, What Are You Doing?” (3:26)
A5. “Parlez-Vous” (5:18)

B1. “Walking Class Hero” (5:21) — Burnel/Vande Voorde
B2. “Le Rocker de la CIA” (3:03)
B3. “Mohammed et Sarah” (5:08)
B4. “Ici ou Là” (5:43)

Polyphonic Size recorded Walking Everywhere at Spaceward Studios with producer Jean-Jacques Burnel and engineer Gary Lucas. Burnel worked in sequence on the 1983/84 Stranglers albums Feline and Aural Sculpture.

Virgin issued “Walking Class Hero” as a seven-inch in January 1984, backed with “Happy Couples,” a Kloot Per W composition produced by a separate producer credited as The Poe.

Album discography: