Bertrand Burgalat

Bertrand Burgalat is a french composer, songwriter, arranger, and DJ. He runs the cult indie pop label Tricatel.

Burgalat was born in the Corsican town of Bastia 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 French towns. Obsessed with Classical Music from an early age, Burgalat apparently became obsessed with the possibilities of pop music after seeing Pink Floyd in concert when he was 10 years old.

His own releases, The Ssssound of Mmmusic (2000), The Genius of Bertrand Burgalat (2001), Portrait Robot (2005) and Chéri B.B. (2007) fuse subtle electronica, psychedelia, soaring backing choruses and string sections with wry lyrics, and crafted melodies. 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.

Burgalat is well-known for his cool, breezy 1960s-style pop sound, something he has lent to his production work with Air, April March, A.S. Dragon and the French writer Michel Houellebecq. His musical influences include the "ye-ye" sound of French pop made famous by France Gall, Françoise Hardy and Brigitte Fontaine, as well as the singers Jacques Dutronc and Serge Gainsbourg.