July 1983, Montreal: Canadian project Trans-X (creator and only permanent member - Quebecois keyboardist Pascal Languirand) releases on ATI Records the single “Living on Video”. Two months later - #1 in Canada, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A year and a half later, after an international reissue on Polydor in 1985 - #2 in the UK, #61 Billboard Hot 100. Total global sales by end of 1985 - over 3 million copies. One of the few Canadian synth-pop hits to break into the European market.
Who Pascal Languirand was
Languirand was born in Quebec in 1955. He studied electronic music at Université Laval, then went to Germany where he worked for two years as a technician for Klaus Schulze (a Tangerine Dream member). Returning to Canada in 1980, he founded Trans-X - the name chosen as wordplay: “transatlantic” plus “trans-x” (an undefined “something expected”).
His first album Living on Video (1983) is the Quebecois answer to European synth-pop. Languirand used his Schulze experience: fully synth-based approach, minimum live instruments, ambient elements.
Recording
Recording took place at Studio Tempo in Montreal from January to May 1983. Budget - around C$40,000. Languirand was composer, producer and performer of all instrumental parts at once.
- Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 - main pads and lead
- Roland Jupiter-8 - the arpeggiator motif, exactly the one heard in the intro
- ARP 2600 - bassline
- LinnDrum - drum machine
- Oberheim OB-8 - string bedding
- Roland SVC-350 Vocoder - vocal processed in the bridge
Languirand's vocal isn't professional. He was the first to say so himself, calling the voice “just another instrument in the arrangement”. That “technical” delivery is one reason the track sounds cold and European.
Numbers and trajectory
- Canada: #1, 11 weeks (August-October 1983); 2× platinum
- UK: #2 (June 1985, after international reissue)
- Germany: #5
- Netherlands: #4
- France: #6
- Italy: #8 - popularity in the italo-disco milieu
- US: #61 Billboard Hot 100; #9 Dance Club Play
- Australia: #14
- Japan: #22 Oricon International
An interesting marketing peculiarity: Polydor didn't release the single in Europe immediately in 1983 - they waited until 1985, when the italo-disco market was at its peak. This gave the track a second birth: in 1985 it became trendy not as retro but as fresh material.
The italo-disco connection
“Living on Video” is one of the few non-European tracks that fits fully into italo-disco aesthetic. BPM 126, F♯ minor, Am-F-C-G progression (the “golden” disco progression), arpeggiator motif on Jupiter-8. Italian DJs played it as their own - most listeners in 1985 didn't know the track was Canadian.
More on the genre's instruments and characteristic progressions. In the 2020s the track became a TikTok meme - the #livingonvideo hashtag has 290 million views.
What remains
Trans-X released two more albums (1985 and 1988), neither repeating the first's success. Languirand moved into ambient and documentary film in the 1990s; in 2013 he died of cancer at age 57.
By 2024 Spotify - over 110 million streams. Related breakdowns - space disco, “Visitors” Koto, Laserdance.