Luc Cousineau

Cousineau, Luc

Luc Cousineau. Singer-songwriter, producer, b Montreal 19 Sep 1944. After studying cello in Sherbrooke, he worked on the saxophone with Arthur Romano in Montreal, and double-bass with Roland Desjardins at the École Vincent-d'Indy. There he met the singer Lise Vachon (b Montreal 9 Jun 1944), who later became his wife. Cousineau and Vachon formed the singing duo Les Alexandrins, accompanied by Luc on the guitar, and made their debut in 1965. Their songs whimsically explored all aspects of everyday life, especially the themes of love and comradeship, typified in their first single for Capitol, 'Les Copains' (1966). They gave shows all over Canada and toured Quebec several times. They represented Canada at the 1970 Festival of Popular Song (Rio de Janeiro). Les Alexandrins performed 1970-3 under the name of Luc et Lise. The elegant melodies and counter-melodies of their love songs recall the age of minstrels yet emcompass the idioms of the 1970s. During their eight-year association, they made four LPs for Capitol and the same number for Polydor.

Lise worked as singer and composer 1973-4 with the Ville Émard Blues Band and 1974-7 with the group Toubabou, consisting of Michel Séguin and others. She performed her own songs for the LP Moi, Lise Cousineau (Le Tamanoir TAM-27017) recorded in 1979. Luc pursued a career as composer, writing the music for the play Double-Jeu by Françoise Loranger, for several NFB films, including Le Bonhomme and L'Absence, the film Des hommes, des femmes produced by the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec, and for about 30 documentary films. During the 1980s, he mainly wrote the music for numerous commercial jingles. He founded the companies Les Productions Luc Cousineau (1978) and Les Auditifs (1986). His fame as a writer-composer-performer grew through such LPs as Cousineau (1973, Clic SCN 1001), Vivre en amour (1975, Airedale LUL.500), Schlack... (1976, Airedale LUL.506), Luc Cousineau (1979, Telson AE 1520), Comme tout le monde (1981, PLC 330001), Comme ça vient (1982, Kébec-Disc KD-558) and Connivence (1989, Airdale Air-33001). In 1991 he composed 'Histoire amoureuse' for the young singer Maxime. He is the brother of Jean Cousineau and François Cousineau.