Art Mengo
Toulouse, France, singer/songwriter Michel Armengot, aka Art Mengo, specializes in love songs. His soft, gentle, somewhat wounded voice perfectly suits the subject matter, and his music has evolved from a radio-friendly soft pop sound to a more intricate blend of pop, intimate jazzy orchestrations, and mellow grooves. Though he has never stopped working since the beginning of his career in 1989, he has sometimes avoided the limelight, often working for such other artists as Johnny Hallyday, Ute Lemper, Henri Salvador, Clarika, Juliette Gréco, Jane Birkin, Florent Pagny, and Enrico Macias. Mengo was born in 1962 in Toulouse; his family was originally from Spain and had fled the country during the Franco dictatorship. Afflicted as a child by a 70 percent hearing deficiency, he was cured via surgery in his teenage years and immediately discovered a whole new sonic world. Although later focusing on his college studies, he recorded a few tracks with the help of his stepbrother Patrice Guirao as lyricist, and was signed to a record label for the release of his first single, "Les Parfums de Sa Vie (Je l'Ai Tant Simée)."
Released in 1990, Un 15 Aout en Fevrier was rewarded with a Victoire de la Musique Award for Best Emerging Male Artist in 1991 and his second record, 1992's Guerre d'Amour, attracted enough praise and interest in the recording business to allow Mengo to write material for Johnny Hallyday (the song "Ça Ne Change Pas un Homme") and Ute Lemper (the entire Parler d'Amour LP). Released in 1995, La Mer N'Existe Pas saw Mengo explore sadder and more intimate subjects, making it his most personal work to date. Gaining confidence on-stage, he toured for a few months, leading to the 1997 release of Live au Mandala, considered to be a live best-of record. After 1998's release of the Croire Qu'un Jour LP, Mengo spent five years writing material for other artists and composing for his 2003 comeback album, La Vie de Château. The product of a newfound collaboration with lyricist Marc Estève, La Vie de Château displayed growing songwriting skills and craftsmanship. Art Mengo has since entered a new stage in his career, as demonstrated by the 2006 release of Entre Mes Guillemets, an album that reveals the artist navigating his customary gentle seas of carefully crafted compositions, while also for the first time featuring lyrics written by Mengo himself.
© Olivier Duboc /TiVo
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Discography
14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Live au Mandala
French Music - Released by Columbia on Jan 28, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Guerre d'amour
French Music - Released by Columbia on Jan 16, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live en trio
French Music - Released by F2F MUSIC Publishing on Mar 12, 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sujet Libre (Art Mengo)
French Music - Released by Le Chant du Monde on Sep 22, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ce petit chemin (Special Edition)
French Music - Released by F2F MUSIC Publishing on Jan 30, 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Un 15. août en février
French Music - Released by Columbia on Jan 26, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Mer N'Existe Pas
French Music - Released by Columbia on Jan 2, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les parfums de sa vie - Le meilleur d'Art Mengo
French Music - Released by Columbia on Apr 23, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Vie De Chateau
Pop - Released by Universal Music Division Label Panthéon on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Croire Qu'un Jour...
French Music - Released by Columbia on Sep 17, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ce petit chemin
French Artists - Released by F2F MUSIC Publishing on Jan 30, 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La maison des ailes
French Music - Released by Verycords on Oct 19, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Bagatelle (Art Mengo)
French Music - Released by Le Chant du Monde on Jul 28, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo