Information/Write-up
Geraldine Cordeau emerged out of Montréal’s vibrant early-1980s dance-music world, one of the cool, instantly recognizable voices shaped by the Matra Records studio circle. Little is known about her personal background, but the records tell the story: a singer with a poised, slightly detached delivery set against the gleaming synth textures that defined Québec’s disco-to-hi-NRG transition. Her first single, “Sounds in the Night,” appeared in 1982 and quickly became her signature, released in Canada as both a 7-inch and 12-inch and even picked up for European issue. Built on arpeggiated keyboards, a driving club pulse, and her atmospheric vocal lines, it established her as a key figure within Matra’s roster and pointed toward international potential. Follow-up singles such as “Tell Me” backed with “What Can I Do” and “Girl Talk” backed with “Do It for You” kept her firmly in rotation with DJs and local dance-radio programmers, each cut in extended and radio-friendly versions as the label aimed at both the floors and the charts.
All of those sides fed naturally into her lone full-length album, Space and Time, released in 1984. The LP brought together eight tracks—cosmic, polished, and deeply rooted in the Montréal synth-disco aesthetic—arranged by her longtime collaborator John Brenner and produced by Brenner and C. “Cussy” Nicodemo. Cordeau sang all lead vocals, supported by a tight in-house cast that handled congas, drum overdubs, keyboards, and multiple layers of harmonies. Recorded at Ultrason Studio, with “Sounds in the Night” cut earlier at Mechanicland, the album blended Prophet-5 textures, vocoder shading, and dance-floor momentum into a cohesive atmosphere that made it one of Matra’s standout releases. It even earned a Gala de l’ADISQ nomination for Dance Album of the Year, placing her among Quebec’s top disco and dance artists of the time, and the LP later circulated in Spain under the bilingual title Espacio y Tiempo.
Cordeau continued to release singles through the mid-1980s, with “Don’t Want to Find Out” marking a shift toward sleeker electronic pop in 1986. Issued in multiple mixes on a 12-inch and paired with the more melodic “Day After Day,” it showed her voice adapting to the new-wave-leaning textures of the period. A companion single, “I Gotta Know,” arrived on Image Records that same year, effectively rounding out her known discography. Although she stepped out of public view soon after, her recordings endured: “Sounds in the Night” resurfaced repeatedly on Unidisc compilations through the 1990s, keeping her name alive among DJs and collectors who cherished Montréal’s synth-driven disco legacy. Today, with original Matra pressings increasingly sought after, Geraldine Cordeau’s small but distinctive catalogue stands as a polished artifact of an era when Québec’s studios were producing some of the most atmospheric and forward-looking dance music in the country, her voice still echoing through those grooves decades later.
-Robert Williston
Written by John Brenner and Philip George
Produced by Cussy Nicodemo and John Brenner
Mixed by Sputnik
Published by New Image Music, C.J.G.M. Publ.
Manufactured and distributed by Matra Records
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