Serge Bringolf -

Serge Bringolf is a French drummer and composer who led the Zeuhl ensemble Strave across the 1981 Oméga Studio albums Strave and Vision, then collaborated with pianist Siegfried Kessler on the 1983 disc Agboville.

Background

Serge Bringolf was born on December 27, 1957, in Strasbourg, France. He sang in a local choir and performed with a dance-theater troupe during childhood. From 1971 to 1973, Bringolf studied saxophone at the Strasbourg Conservatory. He then switched to drums and began writing original music.

At nineteen, Bringolf bought a former postal van and traveled across France in search of bookings at MJC youth centers and clubs. By 1977, he led Utopie and secured an engagement at À l’Ouest de la Grosne, a club in Bresse-sur-Grosne, where owner Jacky Barbier contacted former Art Zoyd guitarist Alain Eckert, who arrived from Chaumont with pianist Patricia Dallio to hear the band.

Eckert and Dallio joined Utopie for an impromptu set and subsequently teamed with Bringolf and bassist Étienne Jesel, the sole holdover from the earlier lineup. The revised Utopie gigged at clubs and MJC venues across eastern France. In July 1979, Dallio joined Art Zoyd through Eckert.

Bringolf assembled the ten-piece Strave with Édition Spéciale bassist François Grillot and former Carmina saxophonist Philippe Gisselmann. The ensemble also featured singer Mano Kuhn, vibraphonist Richard Muller, and violinist Michaël Nick. In January 1980, Bringolf brought Strave to Barbier at À l’Ouest de la Grosne, where they taped four extended pieces for the Oméga Studio double album Strave.

Discography: