Widely considered the godfather of contemporary French pop, singer/songwriter Alain Souchon captured the precarious masculinity of postmodern man with uncommon tenderness and whimsy. Often working in partnership with composer Laurent Voulzy, his music explored themes both personal and political with poetic grace, firmly establishing its creator as the spiritual heir to the traditions of Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens. Born Alain Kienast on May 27, 1944, in Casablanca, Morocco, he was raised in Paris from the age of six months onward. A shy, deeply introspective child, he retreated further into his shell in 1959, when the family suffered an automobile accident that left his father dead. While their mother published pulp romance novels to keep the family afloat, Alain and his siblings moved in with their grandmother, whose habitual radio listening introduced him to the great artists of France's chanson past. In 1961, he was sent to London to study at the Lycée Français but fared poorly, writing poetry and prose while ignoring his academic workload. Souchon nevertheless remained in London, working as a bartender before returning to Paris, where he began learning guitar and writing songs influenced by Britain's new generation of rock & roll bands. After years playing small clubs on Paris' Left Bank, Souchon finally landed a record deal in 1971, issuing his debut single, "Je Suis un Voyageur," on the Pathé Marconi label. Two additional releases followed, both of them meeting the same grim commercial fate that befell their predecessor, and the contract was swiftly terminated.

Souchon's songs nevertheless captured the attention of RCA A&R director Bob Socquet, who in 1973 encouraged him to submit "L'Amour 1830," a song he'd written for Italian singer Frédéric François, to Antibes' annual Rose d'Or competition. Souchon performed the composition himself and won the critic's prize and a special press prize. Even more significantly, by year's end he began working with composer Laurent Voulzy, like Souchon a frustrated singer/songwriter whose gifts as a composer perfectly complemented his new partner's skills as a lyricist. In 1974 Souchon and Voulzy issued their debut LP, J'ai 10 Ans, scoring their breakthrough hit with the title cut. A year later, Bidon cemented their new star status, earning widespread critical acclaim as well. While 1977's Jamais Content launched Souchon's signature song, "Allô Maman Bobo," the duo also scored with the Voulzy solo single "Rockcollection," and in the years to follow their solo careers both flourished, each collaborator balancing the strengths and weaknesses of the other. Souchon's 1978 effort Toto 30 Ans proved his darkest, most disillusioned collection to date, but the singles "Le Bagad de Lann Bihoue" and "Papa Mambo" were nevertheless massive chart hits. The album also contained "L'Amour en Fuite," commissioned by filmmaker François Truffaut as the title theme for his feature of the same name. Following 1980's Rame, Souchon made his debut in front of the camera, co-starring in the Claude Berri film Je Vous Aime and playing the same kind of fragile, haunted character he first introduced with his music.

Souchon continued his infatuation with cinema throughout the early '80s, co-starring opposite Yves Montand and Catherine Deneuve in the 1981 Jean-Paul Rappeneau hit Tout Feu Tout Flame and earning critical raves for his work alongside Isabelle Adjani in 1983's L'Eté Meurtrier. Only in the autumn of 1983 did Souchon release a new LP, On Avance, an album with but one collaboration with Voulzy, "Saute en l'Air." They nevertheless resumed their collaboration in full soon after, retreating to Brittany and Saint-Tropez to co-write Souchon's 1985 follow-up, C'est Comme Vous Voulez, which scored the hit "La Ballade de Jim." After a double-bill tour with Véronique Sanson, he returned to film with 1987's Jacques Doillon-directed Comédie, co-starring Jane Birkin. In the summer of 1989, Souchon headlined a month-long stint at Paris' prestigious Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in support of his newest LP, Ultra Moderne Solitude. "Quand Je Serraise KO," written in tandem with Voulzy, later earned Victoires de la Musique honors as song of the year. Souchon next resurfaced in 1993 with the critical and commercial smash C'est Déjà Ça, an album highlighted by its lead single, "Foule Sentimentale," which quickly emerged as something of a contemporary French standard. The following February, he earned Victoires de la Musique awards in the categories of Best Song of the Year and Best Male Artist, and that fall headlined three sold-out performances at the Zenith, the subject of the live release Défoule Sentimentale.

Souchon and Voulzy next teamed with their respective sons Pierre and Julien (who previously collaborated in the pop group Les Cherche Midi) to contribute material to a 1994 benefit album assembled for the children's AIDS charity Solidarité Enfants Sida. Souchon also toured in honor of the charity, additionally performing at two benefit gigs for the organization Restaurants de Coeur. His next official album, Aux Ras des Pâquerettes, appeared in 1999, and a year later he launched a 140-date tour that extended into 2001, quickly followed by a brief acoustic trek. Souchon turned 60 in 2004, and his pace seemed to slow in the months and years to follow. In February 2005, upon the 20th anniversary of the Victoires de la Musique awards, he received a special Victoire honor celebrating the continued popularity and influence of "Foule Sentimentale," and that autumn released La Vie Theodore, a concept album inspired in part by French geographer Théodore Monod.

Souchon's next album Ecoutez d’où Ma Peine Vient, released in 2008, was notable not only for the relative swiftness with which it arrived, but also for the near-total absence of Laurent Voulzy, who was busy working on his own 30th anniversary celebrations. Souchon ended up writing most of the music on the record by himself, aided on a couple of songs by his son Pierre. After a large-scale tour which was recorded for the live album Alain Souchon Est Chanteur, he went back into the studio -- once again without Voulzy, who was making a solo album -- to record an album of cover versions from his youth, A Cause d'Elles, which was released in 2011. ~ Jason Ankeny

Despite a slim recorded output -- roughly one LP per decade on average -- Laurent Voulzy emerged as one of the most successful and acclaimed composers in contemporary French pop; often working in tandem with longtime collaborator Alain Souchon, his obsessive attention to studio detail was instrumental in shaping the sophisticated melodies and rich arrangements that are the signatures of his work. Born in Paris on December 18, 1945, Voulzy spent much of his childhood in Nogent-sur-Marne, as a child befriending fellow music devotee Christian Vander, later the frontman of the French prog rock group Magma. Voulzy formed his first band at 14, quickly abandoning the drums in favor of guitar.

Beatlemania exerted a profound influence on his musical development, and a 1965 vacation to England proved little more than a record-shopping trip during which he acquired a stack of releases documenting the best of the British Invasion era. In time, Voulzy began composing his own music, and in 1967 he won a local songwriting contest with an original titled "Timide." Military service interrupted his fledgling career, however, and upon returning from duty he enrolled in law school. Law did not prove to his liking, and in 1969 Voulzy assembled Le Poing, a Paris-based rock group that toured extensively but never recorded; their two-year lifespan nevertheless honed his songwriting skills and in 1971 he recorded a demo tape that found its way to RCA. The label extended a contract offer and a year later he issued his debut single, "L'Amour Est un Oiseau" -- the record was not a hit, however, and a similarly grim fate befell its follow-up, 1973's "La Maison à Croquer."

In late 1973 Voulzy began working with Souchon, a similarly frustrated singer/songwriter whose gifts as a lyricist perfectly complemented his new partner's skills as a composer. A year later Souchon and Voulzy issued their debut LP, J'ai 10 Ans, scoring their breakthrough hit with the title cut. A year later, Bidon cemented their new star status, earning widespread critical acclaim as well. While Souchon was the public face of the duo, mounting lengthy tours and co-starring in feature films, Voulzy was portrayed as a recluse and perfectionist locked in the studio for weeks at a time. Souchon's solo career flourished, but only in 1977 did Voulzy resume his solo pursuits with the single "Rockcollection," an exuberant tribute to the pop music of his youth. The single topped the French pop charts, and its 1978 follow-up, "Bubble Star," also proved a chart blockbuster.

After months of fine-tuning, his debut solo LP, Le Coeur Grenadine, finally hit retail in 1979, scoring a pair of number one hits in "Karin Redinger" and the title cut. Despite the album's success, Voulzy steadfastly refused to mount even a brief tour, although in 1980 he joined Souchon during the latter's residency at Paris' legendary Olympia. He closed out the year with another chart-topping single, the Beach Boys homage "Surfin' Jack," and a year later hit paydirt again with "Idéal Simplifié." Voulzy's sophomore solo LP, Bopper en Larmes, followed in late 1981, an uncharacteristically brief four years after its predecessor. In 1983, he even headlined a rare live date in his parents' native French West Indies.

But Voulzy spent the remainder of the decade in the studio, teaming in 1984 with actress Véronique Jeannot for the smash duet "Belle-Ile-en-Mer," a contemporary classic named Best French Song of the 1980s in a 1990 poll of music industry professionals. A year later, he resumed his collaboration with Souchon, decamping to a telephone-free house in Brittany to write the album C'Est Comme Vous Voulez. With 1986's "Les Nuits Sans Kim Wilde," Voulzy returned to the top of the French pop charts, repeating the trick two years later via "Le Soleil Donne." He finally compiled his myriad singles in 1989 as Belle-Ile-en-Mer, although no new material was forthcoming until mid-1992's Caché Derrière, which arrived more than a decade after his previous studio LP, Bopper en Larmes. Buoyed by the hit singles "Carib Islander," "Le Rêve du Pêcheur," and "Le Pouvoir des Fleurs," the album was awarded the SACEM's Grand Prix de la Chanson Française, also claiming Album of the Year honors at the annual Victoire de la Musique awards. The acclaim prompted Voulzy to finally headline his own Paris live dates, and when a three-week residency at the Casino de Paris quickly sold out, he agreed to a December 1993 date at the larger Le Zénith as well. (The Casino de Paris shows later yielded a live album, Voulzy Tour, highlighted by an 18-minute rendition of "Rockcollection.") Voulzy then receded from the limelight yet again, spending the next two years fine-tuning his new home studio on the banks of the River Marne.

After briefly resurfacing via Souchon's Au Ras des Pâquerettes, Voulzy resumed work on his next solo effort, Avril, finally issued in late 2001 after three years of obsessive tinkering -- a melancholy, deeply personal project, its first single, "Une Heroine," proved another major hit, although most striking was the 13-minute finale, "I Want You," a sprawling Beatles tribute recorded as a duet with Souchon. Avril earned the 57-year-old Voulzy a second Victoire de la Musique award for Album of the Year and yielded his longest and most far-ranging tour to date. In 2005 he issued his first greatest-hits compilation, the two-disc Saisons, highlighted by a brand new song, "Là Où Je Vais." Voulzy also agreed to a collaboration with up-and-coming pop chanteuse Nolwenn Leroy, and ended up composing roughly half of her LP Histoires Naturelles. He returned in the summer of 2006 with La Septième Vague, a collection of covers featuring personal favorites including the Doors' "Light My Fire," Etienne Daho's "Duel au Soleil," and Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," the latter a duet with Souchon. Two years after La Septième Vague, Voulzy returned with 2008’s Recollection, a mish-mash of old songs, party re-written, and re-recorded using up-to-date production techniques. 2011 saw the release of Lys & Love, Voulzy first brand-new material since 2001’s Avril. A collection of medieval pop songs, the album was inspired by his interest in the history of the Middle Ages.~ Jason Ankeny