Jean Pierre Castelain

As well as working as a studio musician, composing, arranging and performing for numerous artists, Jean-Pierre Castelain has recorded several albums under his own name. Born in Arques, Pas-de-Calais, on December 20, 1946, in 1965 he joined the group Les Bourgeois de Calais, which became Les Fleurs de Pavot during the psychedelic period in 1968. He inaugurated his solo career the following year with the single "Comme un bébé", then set about recording his first album for Warner Bros., De Mes Yeux Vu (1972), on acoustic and electric guitar, bass, piano, organ, drums and percussion. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer, he worked for several years with the singer Jeanne-Marie Sens, as well as Françoise Hardy, Michel Berger, France Gall and Christine Corda, and took part in the short-lived groups Electric Max Band and Jimmy Bird and Friends. At the same time, he produced the albums Alberia (1974), Le Miroir (1975) and La Souris S'En Va-T-En Guerre! (1975), an ecological pop-rock collection for adults and children. In 1974, he collaborated with composer Igor Wakhévitch on Salvador Dali's opera-poem Être Dieu. He signed the albums Le Funambule (1979) and De Bric et de Broc (1983), then accompanied Nicoletta and Touré Kunda, among others. Two further albums combining chanson, rock and blues follow: Citoyen du Monde (1999) and Le CAP (2010). Jean-Pierre Castelain died in Carcassonne on August 3, 2019, aged 72.