Biography

Born in Paris in 1982, Léonard Lasry discovered the piano at a very young age and by the age of 10, began to compose his first melodies. Whilst still studying, projects to capture the recording of his songs multiply until they lead to the release of a first album entitled “Des illusions” at the age of 24, evoking a fairly traditional “French song” atmosphere. A sort of recital with a timeless sound: the zeitgeist does not seem to have a hold on Leonard. Created in 2006 but we could be in 1959 or 1978, who knows?Léonard Lasry adores the soundtracks of films by Francis Lai and Michel Legrand, he is passionate about New Wave cinema and the films of Jacques Demy, also inspired by the cinema of Claude Lelouch and Almodovar.

As a teenager, he dreams of emulating the big names in pop, but he also dreams of being an entrepreneur, setting up a fashion house or his music label 29 Music.Without wanting to focus on a single discipline, Léonard created his own label 29 Music and at the same time, he joined forces with his brother to establish their eponymous eyewear brand THIERRY LASRY. In 2010, he created, for a few seasons, his own line of jewellery, acclaimed in Japan in the H.P France boutiques, at the flagship of designer Hiroko Koshino and in France at Franck & Fils. As his fashion projects develop, Léonard realizes to what extent the aesthetic part of creation is decisive for him.

Every melody he composes, every atmosphere he creates in his music, is born from an image, whether real or imagined. It can be cinema, but often also a fashion image. A look, a scene, a garment, an attitude inspires him with the flavour of what he manages to transcribe in his musical productions. The 2010s saw a series of projects with both iconographic and musical aspects. In 2012 he joined forces with the Gérard Courant & Elisa Point Foundation for a video performance around the cinema of the 60s and its aesthetics. The project is called L’EXCEPTION and invites viewers to extraordinary video projections. On the big screen, songs roam about the movements of Monica Vitti, Catherine Spaak, Brigitte Bardot and other legendary figures of a cinema both classical and at the same time, ultra-modern.

In 2014 he continued his visual exploration by meeting New York photographer and stylist Maripol. She is entwined with the beginnings of Madonna’s style and the Fiorucci house, of which she was also the artistic director in the 80’s. Together they recorded songs mainly with vintage disco inspiration. This was the opportunity for Leonard to express his musical character in other colours and to lead Maripol behind the microphone, situating his vocal presence somewhere between Amanda Lear, Marianne Faithfull or Grace Jones, 3 icons who are an inspiration to him. In 2015, he presented the “MARIPOL CALENDAR SONG” series, the first object for which he was artistic director, bringing together drawings and photos of the artist whom he selected from a large number of archives, accompanied by their common EP.

The idea that these refrains could accompany fashion images did not remain secret and would quickly be shared with several more houses. Their collaboration created a collection of new songs or remixes for different projects and brands: the HUGO BOSS collection by Jason Wu in 2015, a new single “Words I want to hear” for the house VALENTINO and his film “Enchanted Wonderland” in 2016, followed by a series of previously unreleased tracks specially recorded to illustrate Maria Grazia Chuiri’s collections at DIOR.

Leonard’s signature style is halfway between pop, film music, embellished with a je ne sais quoi of vintage flavour, like champagne bubbles, and is getting more and more noticeable. After having worked on the artistic direction and the soundtrack of MilKY WAY with the photographer director Ali Mahdavi for his own brand, Léonard continued the following year with the musical production of the title “Strip-Tease-moi” for the Crazy Horse, the mythical Parisian cabaret. The track takes the place of a now permanent number and becomes an emblematic soundtrack to the TOTALLY CRAZY show. He also composed the music for a scene in Viktoria Modesta’s “BIONIC GIRL” show, while having the opportunity on two occasions to set up his piano there to present his own songs, a rare exception for this elite cabaret.

Other titles are recorded for Cartier (“Radwoi” for Cartier Arabia), “Love each other” for Trish McEvoy cosmetics, “Golden Eighties” for the trilogy “FASHION! By Olivier Nicklaus produced by Mademoiselle Agnès.

In 2019, he published the official song of the Parisian club CASTEL. The club gives him a monthly residency entitled LES MERCREDIS DE LEONARD LASRY during which he receives his guests and offers intimate live performances from the artists present in the catalogue of his label.29 MUSIC currently has around 60 published references, albums, EP’s and singles combined. Léonard published the last 3 albums of the Swedish trip hop artist Jay-Jay Johanson and also the last productions of Marie France, muse of the Palace years, for whom he created a tailor-made repertoire.

After “Avant la première fois” released in Europe in 2017 and then in Japan in 2018, Léonard Lasry continued his career as a singer by releasing a new album in spring 2021 entitled “Au hasard cet espoir” 16 solar songs composed largely on the heights of Capri and Positano, imbued with an inspiration that he readily calls “European”. At the end of the album, he pays tribute to Coco Chanel with “Vagabonde éternelle”, the portrait of a conquering and determined woman.