Bertrand Burgalat is a French musician, composer and producer.

Background

Bertrand Burgalat was born in the Corsican town of Bastia

Bastia

Bastia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It is also the second-largest city in Corsica after Ajaccio and the capital of the department....

 in 1963. His father, a high-ranking civil servant, was the sub-prefect of the island at the time, but as often happens in this profession, the Burgalat family moved several times in the course of Burgalat senior's career so young Bertrand grew up in several different towns in France. Obsessed with Classical Music from an early age, Burgalat apparently became fascinated with the possibilities of pop music after seeing Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

 in concert when he was 10 years old.

Work

Burgalat is well-known for his cool, breezy 1960s-style pop sound, something he has lent to his production work with Air, April March

April March

April March is an American indie pop singer/songwriter who sings in English and French...

, A.S Dragon, Dalcan, Jad Wio, Mick Harvey

Mick Harvey

Michael John Harvey , is an Australian rock musician, composer, arranger and record producer. He is best known for his long-time collaboration with the singer and songwriter Nick Cave...

, Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe (musician)

Louis Philippe is a London-based French singer, songwriter, arranger and producer who has been active from the mid-1980s onwards...

 and the French writer Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq

Michel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...

. His musical influences include the "yé-yé

Yé-yé

Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged from France, Québec and Spain in the early 1960s. The term "yé-yé" derived from "yeah! yeah!" The style expanded worldwide, due to the success of figures such as the French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg....

" sound of French pop made famous by France Gall

France Gall

France Gall is a popular French yé-yé singer.Gall was married to, and had a successful singing career in partnership with, French singer-songwriter Michel Berger....

, Françoise Hardy

Françoise Hardy

Françoise Madeleine Hardy is a French singer, actress and astrologer. Hardy is an iconic figure in fashion, music and style. She is married to the singer and movie actor Jacques Dutronc.-Biography:...

 and Brigitte Fontaine

Brigitte Fontaine

Brigitte Fontaine, born in 1939 in Morlaix in the Brittany region of France, is a singer of avant-garde music. During the course of her career she has employed numerous unusual musical styles, melding rock and roll, folk, jazz, electronica, spoken word poetry and world rhythms...

, as well as the singers Jacques Dutronc

Jacques Dutronc

Jacques Dutronc is a French singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actor. He has been married to singer Françoise Hardy since 30 March 1981 and the two have a son . He also has been a longtime songwriting collaborator with Jacques Lanzmann...

 and Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...

, as well as the 'folk-music of the Ruhr' created by Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

.He perform a completely new version of the Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode

Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...

 "easy Tiger" instrumental song from the album Exciter, the song is a b-side of the single dream on, which was well received by all the devoted depeche mode fans. Reputed to possess one of the most acute ears in the business, 'BB' (a nickname he shares with Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Bardot

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...

) also draws inspiration from 20th century French classical composers such as Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

, Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

 and Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

, and was greatly influenced by the writings of cult French journalist-cum-pop visionary Yves Adrien.

At the age of 25, he produced the Laibach

Laibach (band)

Laibach is a Slovenian avant-garde music group associated with industrial, martial, and neo-classical musical styles. Laibach formed June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, Slovenia . Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984...

's album Let It Be

Let It Be (Laibach album)

Let It Be is the fifth album by Laibach, released in 1988. It is a cover of the Beatles' album Let It Be recorded in Laibach style with military rhythms and choirs, though a few tracks deviate from this formula, most notably "Across the Universe"...

, which is an entire cover of The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

' album of the same name.

In 1995, he remixed and rearranged the Renegade Soundwave

Renegade Soundwave

Renegade Soundwave was an electronic music group. Formed in London in 1986, the group originally consisted of Gary Asquith, Carl Bonnie and Danny Briottet.-History:...

 song "Positive Mindscape" (as "Positive BB") for release on the "Positive Dub Mixes" CD single.

His own releases, The Ssssound of Mmmusic (2000) and Portrait-robot (2005) fuse subtle electronica, psychedelia, soaring backing choruses and string sections with wry lyrics (some of them written by Philippe Katerine

Philippe Katerine

Philippe Katerine is a French singer who began his career in 1991. Some of his popular singles include "Mon coeur balance", "Je vous emmerde" and "Louxor j'adore". Given that his songs are mainly in French, he hasn't gained much popularity outside of France...

, April March

April March

April March is an American indie pop singer/songwriter who sings in English and French...

 and Alfreda Benge

Alfreda Benge

Alfreda Benge is a lyricist and illustrator. She has been married to musician Robert Wyatt since 1974. She has contributed lyrics to many of his compositions, and has written lyrics for French musician/producer Bertrand Burgalat, and for Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos.Benge studied and worked...

, Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

's longtime companion), and finely crafted melodies. Burgalat is also expert at using discords and dissonances in his harmonies, some of which bear more relation to avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 classical music than to pop. On his album, Bertrand Burgalat Meets A.S. Dragon (2001), Burgalat places his crooning style directly in contrast with A.S Dragon's hard-groove rock/jam-band sensibility.

Tricatel

In 1995, Burgalat established his own record label, Tricatel, which has become synonymous with futuristic retro-chic, innovation and fierce attachment to its independent spirit, characteristics which are both natural to him, and derived from his fascination for labels like the Compact Organisation and él Records

El records

él Records is an independent record label from the UK founded by Mike Alway. Alway, who cut his teeth in the late seventies working with The Soft Boys and promoting clubs and concerts in Richmond, south-west London, joined Cherry Red Records in 1980 to work alongside the company's founder, Iain...

. This boutique label (whose very high profile in France has not yet been matched by commercial success) has helped define the "Burgalat sound", which has been billed as a French response to Phil Spector

Phil Spector

Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....

, and has been a major influence on acts such as Air and Daft Punk

Daft Punk

Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...

. Struggling with distribution problems, and despite the huge critical acclaim gained by many of its releases, Tricatel has downsized its activities over the past two years, concentrating on acts such as AS Dragon

AS Dragon

AS Dragon is a football club of Guadeloupe, based in the town of Le Gosier.They play in the Guadeloupe first division, the Guadeloupe Championnat National.-Current squad:2008/2009 season-External links:* - Gwadafoot...

, new signing Les Shades, and Bertrand Burgalat himself, who is currently (January 2007) working on a follow-up to 'Portrait-Robot'. Other notable artists in the Tricatel catalogue include Swedish avant-pop trio Eggstone

Eggstone

Eggstone is a Swedish Indie Pop band, formed in 1986. The three members - Per Sunding , Patrik Bartosch and Maurits Carlsson - were raised in the small coastal town of Lomma, outside Malmö...

, The High Llamas

The High Llamas

The High Llamas are a London-based musical group, formed by the Irish guitarist and songwriter Sean O'Hagan after the demise of his group Microdisney. O'Hagan writes and arranges the music and the rest of the group consists of drummer Rob Allum, keyboardist/cellist Marcus Holdaway, and...

, Ingrid Caven

Ingrid Caven

Ingrid Caven is a German film actress and singer. Her younger sister Trudeliese Schmidt was an opera singer and also an actress.Caven has appeared in over 50 films since her film debut in 1969 in the short film...

, and award-winning novelist Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe is an English novelist and writer. His work has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name...

, who teamed up with Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe (musician)

Louis Philippe is a London-based French singer, songwriter, arranger and producer who has been active from the mid-1980s onwards...

 and jazz pianist/double-bass player Danny Manners for the occasion. Tricatel has also released compilations of some of Burgalat's musical heroes, such as French composer André Popp

André Popp

André Charles Jean Popp is a French composer, arranger and screenwriter.Born in Fontenay-le-Comte, Vendée, he started his career as a church organist, filling the place of his father who had been called up to serve in World War II in 1939. Popp studied music at the Saint Joseph Institute...

 and legendary English arranger and soundtrack composer David Whitaker

David Whitaker (composer)

David Whitaker is an English composer, songwriter, arranger, and conductor.active in the 1960s and 1970s...

. Bertrand Burgalat picked the name 'Tricatel' from a successful French comedy of the 70's, l'Aile ou la cuisse, starring Louis de Funès

Louis de Funès

Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza was a very popular French actor who is one of the giants of French comedy alongside André Bourvil and Fernandel...

 and Coluche

Coluche

Michel Colucci , better known as Coluche, was a French comedian and actor, famous for his irreverent sense of humour....

.

Discography

• The Ssssound of Mmmusic (2000)
• The Genius of Bertrand Burgalat (2001)
• Bertrand Burgalat Meets A.S Dragon (2001)
• Portrait Robot (2005)
• Inédits (2007)
• Chéri B.B. (2007)