General Questions
Who is Louis Philippe?
What does Louis's music sound like?
Who has Louis worked with?
Where can I buy Louis' albums?
Where can I find Louis Philippe lyrics?
How can I stay up to date with Louis Philippe news?
Where can I hear a Real Audio or MP3 music clip of
Louis Philippe?
I have found a track by a band called The Arcadians
- it sounds like Louis Philippe, is it?
Could you please give me some information on a
Japanese CD by Louis Philippe called Pulunk?
Are there any plans for a European release of
Passport to the Pogie Mountains?
Is there a 12" remix version of "So Danco
Samba" by Louis Philippe & Sean
O'Hagan? If so where can I buy it?
Can you give me any information on the Stratton
& Stubbs release?
Who is Louis Philippe?
Louis Philippe is the stage name of singer/songwriter (not
to mention BBC correspondent, football journalist, chef and wine
buff) Philippe Auclair. Raised in Normandy, France, Louis studied
and taught philosophy in Paris before releasing his first EP under
the name of The Border Boys on the Belgian label Les Disques du
Crépuscule in 1985.
Splitting from his subsequent band The Arcadians, Louis moved residence
to London, England, and crossed paths with Mike Alway, legendary
eminence grise behind the él label. Quickly becoming the
label's house songwriter, Louis contributed to many él releases
and released three albums under his own name. After the demise of
él, five more albums followed on the Japanese Trattoria
label, courtesy of longtime Louis fan Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius).
Louis has also worked as songwriter and producer for many other
artists.
Louis has just released a brand new album, provisionally entitled
The Wonder Of It All, which can be purchased here.
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What does Louis' music
sound like?
Louis is probably best associated with él records. According
to founder Mike Alway, "the theme of él records
would be escapism into a pop fantasy world which would always be
optimism and sunshine". él was magnificently out
of step with the rest of the late-eighties musical scene, enormously
influential with musicians in Europe, Japan, and the US, and was
ten years ahead of its time in anticipating the retro and easy listening
vogues in recent pop.
But those are only a part of Louis's music, which covers the range
from pure bubblegum to symphonic sweep, with detours via jazz and
soul along the way. A typical Louis Philippe album might mix influences
from vintage pop, French chanson, Ravel, bossa nova, Duke Ellington,
the Shirelles, or The Beach Boys. Classical instruments and intricate
backing vocals often feature in the arrangements.
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Who has Louis worked with?
Amongst many others: Dean Brodrick, Bertrand
Burgalat, La Buena Vida, Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, Fatima
Mansions), Nick
Currie (Momus), HaLo,
Count Indigo, Dave Gregory (XTC), David Longdon, Danny
Manners, Sean O'Hagan (Microdisney, The
High Llamas), Keigo Oyamada (Flipper's Guitar, Cornelius), Andy
Paley, City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Preston, Mathilde
Santing, Kate StJohn (Dream Academy, Ravishing Beauties), Simon
Turner (King of Luxemburg), P.J. Proby, Leila Amezian, April March,
Count Indigo, Denis Bovell and, soon, The Clientele.
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Where can I buy Louis' albums?
To start with, from this site!
In the UK, just pop in in any big store (HMV, Tower, Virgin Megastore)
- they do stock quite a wide selection of LP material. Most Louis
Philippe albums are also available on the net through the usual
channels: CDNow,
Amazon, etc.
But it's always a good idea to contact the labels directly... Check
out who released the records in the discography
section, then jump to the links page, and
you should know by then who to get in touch with.
Louis’s latest release, The
Wonder Of It All is also distributed by Darla
in the States and, as from February 28, 2005, Dot
in Scandinavia. A similar deal should soon take effect in Germany
through Dandyland
/Cargo.
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Where can I find Louis
Philippe lyrics?
We are slowly adding lyrics to each album page in the discography
- this is ongoing so do check back regularly.
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How can I stay up to date
with Louis Philippe news?
Bookmark this site and subscribe to our newsletter
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Where can I hear a Real
Audio or MP3 music clip of Louis Philippe?
You're in the right place - check out our MP3
page.
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I have found a track
by a band called The Arcadians - it sounds like Louis Philippe,
is it?
You're absolutely right. The Arcadians was the name of LP's second
"band". The Arcadians released a single (With all our
loving/Chinese Doll on Disques
du Crepuscule) and an album, "Mad Mad World", released
in Belgium (on Interior Music) and Japan (on Shiseido/Crepuscule
au Japon). Both records are unfortunately out of print. A small
quantity of the single might be put on sale through Sunshine when
we've put together a product section.
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Could you please give
me some information on a Japanese CD by Louis Philippe called Pulunk?
The mysterious Pulunk album is, believe it or not, none other
than Nusch! Why? Because that
is how our Japanese friends pronounce Poulenc...
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Are there any plans
for a European release of Passport to the Pogie Mountains?
The only European release - in Spain, through Grabbacciones Accidendales,
is one of LP's most coveted rarities. There are no plans to re-release
it at the moment. Please see the discography
for more information.
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Is there a 12" remix version of "So
Danco Samba" by Louis Philippe & Sean O'Hagan? If so where
can I buy it?
Unfortunately no. The only version available is the one released
on the XIIIbis
Records Tribute to Jobim compilation.
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Can you give me any
information on the Stratton & Stubbs release?
The Stratton & Stubbs is one of Louis' most obscure projects,
and that is saying something. Louis helped Richard Preston and Ian
Smith (Marden Hill) put together a library music compilation - as
arranger, keyboardist and composer (on four tracks). Unfortunately,
this record is not available commercially...But one of these tracks
might make an appearance on this site as a free download in the
near future - as soon as the copyright issues are cleared.
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