Who Are Those Composers? ~ Alexandre Azaria

Alexandre Azaria was born to a British nurse and a radio producer in Paris, France on September 3, 1967. Azaria has been immersed in music since his early childhood. Thanks to his dual French-British nationality, he has benefited from his exposure to the two cultures to further his art. From the exploration of his father’s records collection to that of Radio 7, which he was in charge of after leaving school, he has made music his constant companion before turning his attention to movies, fast becoming a pivotal player as a movie score composer. These young years saw him record, between 1988 and 1992, two albums with ‘Le Cri de la mouche’, a quintet of rock musicians in which he was the lead guitar and with whom he performed over 500 concerts, before joining the Niagara duet on a tour.

Known by his alias Replicant, he is a French composer, songwriter and musician. He presently signs only by his own name.

Azaria started in the 1980s as musician in several bands. He was in the French rock band ‘Le Cri de la mouche’. In 1996, for a brief period, he became part of the famous French band ‘Indochine’ as a guitarist. He co-wrote and co-produced the album “Wax in the Band” and left soon after in 1997.

As for motion pictures, Alexandre Azaria created his first original soundtrack for the feature film “Comme un poisson hors de l’eau” (Like A Fish Out Of Water), a police comedy directed by Hervé Hadmar staring Tchéky Kario and Monica Bellucci. Fascinated by Hollywood movies soundtracks, he took the time to study and decode the works of his mentors. In 2002, he composed the score of the Vincent Perez film, “Peau d’Ange” (Once upon an Angel), produced by Europa Corp, Luc Besson’s producing company which at the time was wrapping up the production of Transporter, directed by Louis Leterrier, who entrusted him with the music of the last scene of the movie, an infernal 15-minute car chase that American composer Stanley Clark could not finish because of time constraints. The following year, directors Thomas Sorriaux and Vincent Desagnat, for whom Azaria had already composed, in 2000, the score of the feature “La malediction de la mamie”, asked him to write the seventies flavored music of music of “La Beuze”, an explosive comedy with Michaël Youn, which was seen by two million movie goers. Still in 2003, director Gérard Krawczyk called upon his talents for the movie “Fanfan La Tulipe”, a costumed period piece with an orchestral score cut to measure for a grand swashbuckling adventure. In 2004, Azaria scored the Aruna Villiers film “A Ton Image”, which scenario inspired him a more synthetic, climactic and anxiety-laden music. Same year, different movie: the Eric and Ramzy comedy, “Les Dalton”, gave him the opportunity to move in a new direction. The UGC produced film, directed by Phillippe Haïm, gave him the opportunity to deliver an authentic Western score with a humoristic twist for a film that would draw an audience of more than two million to the theaters.

Since 2004, in parallel to his film career, Alexandre Azaria also composed for the stage, with music for a play by writer Claire Castillon and for a show of stand-up comedian Elie Semoun, as well as for television. He has renewed the musical identity of the MCM television channel, created the opening score of “Les feux de la rampe”, the show of Paris Première television, before working for “Editions Dargaud” on the Valérian project, an adaptation of the comic’s books by Mézières and Christin. As well as composing the music for the episodes of the animation series based on “Le Petit Nicholas”, the character of French cartoonist Sempé, broadcast by M6 television, Alexandre Azaria has composed the music of the feature film “Le Missionaire”, written by Jean-Marie Bigard and directed by Roger Delattre, which will be released in 2009 while he works for UGC on the original soundtrack of “Imogène”, a film with a script penned by Franck Magnier and Alexander Charlot, the co-script writers, with Dany Boon, of Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis.

AZARIA, Alexandre (aka s Replicant) [9/3/1967, Paris, Île-de-France, France  -     ] – composer, arranger, songwriter, musician (guitar), member of the bands ‘Le Cri de la mouche’, ‘Indochine’ (1996).

~ http://www.alexandre-azaria.com/

The Daltons* - 2004

[* available on CD]