Alec Rupen Costandinos, (born Alexandre Garbis Sarkis Kouyoumdjian in 1944 in Cairo, Egypt) is a French composer, music producer, songwriter and singer of the 1970s, known for his contributions to disco music. His father was Armenian and his mother was Greek. Costandinos dominated the disco and Euro-disco genres in the late 1970s. He began his career as a publisher and producer for various artists, including French pop star Claude Francois and chanteuse Dalida. After writing Cerrone's "Love in C Minor" (1976), Costandinos was signed to Barclay Records. He released his first album, Love & Kisses in 1977, which featured the hit track "I Found Love (Now That I Found You)". Costandinos went on to release a number of wildly successful records under the prominent American disco label, Casablanca. His album, Romeo & Juliet has been credited for bringing the concept album to dance music. He also wrote "Thank God It's Friday", the theme track to the disco film by the same name.

Costandinos was involved as a writer in the development of many productions of Demis Roussos. He also contributed to the debut album of Crystal Grass, which featured the club hit "Crystal World", released on the Philips label in France. He has also written under the pseudonym R. Rupen. He often worked with a collective of backing singers, the Birds of Paris, some of whom later became famous in their own right. According to what he declared in one of his rare interviews on 11 December 2011 at Open House Radio (Miami), his disco works were basically influenced by Philly sound, classical and melodic Italian music.

Source: Article "Alec R. Costandinos" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Alec R. Costandinos, Alexandre Kouyoumdjian, producteur de musique disco né au Caire en 1944, d'un père arménien et d'une mère grecque. Il arrive à Paris à 22 ans après un séjour en Australie.

Avant d'être un des producteurs d'Euro-disco les plus connus, il commença sa carrière comme producteur pour des artistes français (Dalida, Claude François). Il enregistra également quelques 45T personnels, dont "Un oiseau sur New York" eb 1969. Après avoir écrit "Love in C Minor" pour Cerrone en 1976, il signera sur le Label français Barclay un album Love and Kisses en 1977, avec un tube disco "I've Found Love (Now That I've Found You)". Il signera d'autres albums sur le label américain de Neil Bogart, Casablanca Records, avec en 1977 l'album "Sphinx", puis "Sumeria", "Golden Tears". Ce sera un des premiers à introduire le concept-album avec "Romeo & Juliet", album réalisé en 1977. Il produira de 1977 à 1979 dans les studios Trident à Londres de nombreux titres, avec des morceaux de plus de 15 minutes. Il sera plus connu pour les titres "I've Found Love," "Romeo and Juliet," et "Thank God It's Friday".

En 1994, il compose le générique de la série policière "Placé en garde à vue" (avec Serge Lama et Laurent Gamelon).

Source: Article "Alec R. Costandinos" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.