Axel Bauer (born 7 April 1961) is a French singer, composer, guitarist, and actor, born in Paris. A figure of the French rock scene, he was discovered in 1983 with the song "Cargo". Several times awarded a gold record, he has sold three million records and performed nearly 700 concerts in France and Europe.
He submitted his demos to Philippe Missir, artistic director of Mondio Music, who accompanied him in the elaboration of the "Cargo" demo on which Michel Eli, the director of the label immediately signed Bauer. The song came out at the end of 1983 with Manu Katche on drums and Bauer on guitar. Michel Eli, who wrote the lyrics, was inspired by film Pépé le Moko with Jean Gabin. The cover of the single refers to the poster of the film Querelle by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. "Cargo" sold more than a million copies, earning a Gold record for Bauer.
Bauer chose to work with the director Jean Baptiste Mondino on a video for the song. The video was shot in black and white, populated by muscular sailors in engine rooms and a nude girl dancing, inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumble Fish and Fritz Lang's film Metropolis. "Cargo" was the first French video to be broadcast on MTV.
The following year, he became the first French artist to sign at EMI international. He settled in London and began recording his debut album with director Dave Bascomb, producer of Tears for Fears. The album Les nouveaux Seigneurs was released in 1987.
After a few years spent in the UK, Axel left EMI, returned to Paris and signed with Mercury (Universal). In 1990, Sentinelles was released, produced by Ben Rogan (Polnareff, Daho, Sade). It was considered an unpolished blending of disparate genres such as rock and electro with multiple collaborations, with the song "Éteins la lumière" becoming a success and being certified gold record. The song remains notable for its guitar riff. Axel then left for a long tour with musicians such as bassist Phil Spalding, on guitar Pierre Jaconelli or drummer Mathieu Rabaté.
Simple mortel, his third album, was released in 1998. However, Bauer's record company found the album to be out of format, with the songs too long for the radio and although having received a good reception in the press, they did not promote it.
Axel worked with his guitarist Juan Tamayo on "Mens moi" and the bassist Arnaud Giroud of Emigrates for his next album.
After listening to some demos with French artist Zazie, they got really deep by writing a song called "À ma place". Zazie wrote the lyrics, Axel composed the music and both sung. A song with compelling energy and emotion that won an enormous success, selling nearly 600,000 copies, was nominated for the Victoires de la musique and won an NRJ music Award. The album became a golden record with 170,000 copies sold.
À ma place" was not included on Zazie's studio album, but only on Bauer's Personne n'est parfait on which it appears in an extended version, then on Bauer's best of La Désintégrale (2003).
In 2003, the live version performed during Zazie's tour was added on her live album Ze live!! and in the collector edition of La Désintégrale. The song, as well as the music video (on the DVD), were also available on Zazie's 2008 greatest hits Zest Of. ...
Source: Article "Axel Bauer" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
