Louis Bertignac

Best known as a founding member of the seminal French rock band <a href="spotify:artist:3fQq9bb2ZKNv24V1A4vwBK">Téléphone</a>, Louis Bertignac is a French singer/songwriter and guitarist who embarked on a sporadic yet successful solo career in 1993. Influenced by English rock bands of the '60s and '70s like <a href="spotify:artist:22bE4uQ6baNwSHPVcDxLCe">the Rolling Stones</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:36QJpDe2go2KgaRleHCDTp">Led Zeppelin</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:67ea9eGLXYMsO2eYQRui3w">the Who</a>, Bertignac was born on February 23, 1954, in Oran, Algeria, and moved to France in 1957. He made his recording debut as a guitarist on the <a href="spotify:artist:7KisXggbWbBdYatDQcBmum">Jacques Higelin</a> album Irradié in 1976. He co-founded <a href="spotify:artist:3fQq9bb2ZKNv24V1A4vwBK">Téléphone</a> that same year, and the band made their landmark self-titled debut the following year. The biggest French rock band of the late '70s and early '80s, <a href="spotify:artist:3fQq9bb2ZKNv24V1A4vwBK">Téléphone</a> split up in 1986 after five studio full-lengths and a live swan song album. In the wake of the band's breakup, Bertignac founded a band of his own, <a href="spotify:artist:0cCYFMxNS4EJcjqtVHWl22">Les Visiteurs</a>, and released a couple albums, Bertignac et les Visiteurs (1987) and Rocks (1990). In 1993, he made his solo album debut with Elle et Louis, produced by <a href="spotify:artist:46ISQ20xfCvHum4YeV08XF">Tony Visconti</a>, and released a live acoustic album shortly thereafter, Bertignacoustic (1994). His second solo full-length studio effort, 96 (1996), was produced by Chris Kimsey and was likewise followed up with a live album, Bertignac (1998). Several years passed before Bertignac released his next album, Longtemps (2005). In the meantime, he produced the <a href="spotify:artist:1HVwzNriKEjaeE06okqSpx">Carla Bruni</a> album Quelqu'un M'a Dit (2004); in return, she wrote the majority of the lyrics for Longtemps. Yet another live album followed, Power Trio (2006), before Bertignac once again took some time off. He returned a half-decade later with Grizzly (C'est Vraiment Moi) (2011), his fourth solo studio album. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi