Biography

Vivien Lalu is a French keyboardist, composer and producer based in Paris. He has appeared on more than twenty albums across Frontiers, Universal, Sony, InsideOut, Metal Blade and AFM Records, and his 2013 record Atomic Ark was named in Roadrunner Records' Top Ten Albums of the year by Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater.

Born into a musical family, with his mother Noëlle on keyboards and his father Michel as guitarist for the 70s French progressive band Polène, Vivien was immersed in music from an early age. He briefly studied under Emmanuel David, a student of jazz legend Thelonious Monk.

Since 1997 he has consistently released music across bands and projects, primarily in the progressive rock and metal scenes, earning an Album of the Month from Rock Hard Magazine along the way.

His first foray into film scoring came in 2008 with the Warner Bros. comedy Seuls Two, directed by Éric and Ramzy. He has since contributed to TV soundtracks, including the theme for Science X, the France 2 science series hosted by Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, produced in collaboration with Lucasfilm Ltd.

The 2020s brought the project's most sustained run. Damian Wilson joined for Paint the Sky in 2022, an album nominated for Album of the Year by both The Progspace and The Prog Report, and stayed for The Fish Who Wanted To Be King the year after. In 2026, twenty years after the debut, A Mythmaker's Demise reunited Vivien with original singer Martin LeMar and with Simon Phillips, the first drummer ever to record a Lalu track.

Vivien co-founded the band A-Z with Ray Alder of Fates Warning, bassist Philip Bynoe (Steve Vai) and drummer Mark Zonder, alongside Joop Wolters, whom he brought in. Their 2022 debut on Metal Blade Records charted in the United States, Germany and Switzerland.

Beyond albums and live performances, Vivien has created music and sound effects for Ubisoft and Neko Entertainment games on platforms including the Nintendo DS, 3DS and Wii U. He has been an endorsing artist for Roland keyboards since 2014.