French poet and singer/songwriter Allain Leprest was one of the original voices of French chansons. A prolific artist, writing over 1,000 songs, he also had a unique delivery, half-singing and half-reciting his material in his dark, growling voice. His songs have minimal, intimate arrangements, capable of conjuring both nostalgia and melancholia. He frequently collaborated, as with pianist Jean-Louis Beydon and on a 1992 album with accordionist Richard Galliano. While the spotlight sometimes eluded him, he created an immutable body of important and genre-defining work.
