Louie Austen

Releasing his debut album well into his fifties, crooner Louie Austen emerged as an unexpected presence on Austria’s dance circuit through an idiosyncratic blend of jazz-pop and electronica. Born Alois Luef in Vienna in 1946, the classically trained vocalist had already appeared on stages in L.A. and New York during the 1970s before securing a long-term engagement at the Cascade Bar in his native city. A fortuitous encounter in the late ’90s with an experimental producer sparked a partnership that paired his Dean Martin-esque vocals with contemporary electro-disco textures. The partnership yielded the 1999 debut Consequences, succeeded by Only Tonight in 2001, Easy Love in 2003, and Iguana in 2006. In 2007 Austen established his own imprint, LA Music, under which he issued multiple EPs, among them the Amy Winehouse tribute set My Amy; two years later he delivered his fifth album, the double-disc set Last Man Crooning/Electrotaining You!. Additional recording work includes collaborations with Peaches, Ada Fijal, and Phonique, while on screen he portrayed a casino gambler in the Oscar-winning film The Counterfeiters.