René Bertholo

This story began when I had to learn something about electronics, in order to make objects with electric movement, which I call “small-scale models”, and which I was making between 1963 and 1973.

In 1973, when tired of repairs I had decided to give up making them, a friend gave me one of those musical boxes with a handle, a drum bristling with prickles and a steel comb. Although I had seen similar ones, that particular one fascinated me and I had an urge to make one like it, but using electronics. That is how my first “Makina” was born – one could describe it as of a digital, programmable type of synthesizer which has gone through different phases since then and taken on various shapes which even today are still ongoing. At first it was a machine which produced sounds, but I inevitably became more and more interested in its musical possibilities.