Photo by Alexandre Isard
Some collaborations seem so logical that you immediately think: Why didn’t that happen earlier? Acclaimed composer and piano madman CHILLY GONZALES now teamed up with PULP leading man JARVIS COCKER for a record filled with gentle chanson pop, inspired by the golden days of 1920s blues and jazz standards but packed with contemporary lyrical topics in typical COCKER-fashion. The basic instrumentation of the album is piano and voice with the Kaiser Quartett contributing strings to several tracks.
Room 29 is being described as ‘a song-cycle concerning the goings-on in Room 29 of the Château Marmont hotel in Hollywood’. JARVIS COCKER explains what we can expect from the album’s content in the forthcoming live context (find the dates below):
‘Featuring contributions from film historian David Thomson and the stories of famous former occupants of the room such as Jean Harlow and Howard Hughes, the show will also attempt to unpick the way a heady concoction dreamt up in the immediate vicinity of the hotel went on to intoxicate the entire population of planet Earth. Or, (to quote the sub-title of David Thomson’s book The Big Screen): it is also the story of the movies and what they did to us.’
CHILLY adds:
‘Rom 29 may be a real location in Hollywood, California – but it is also a place within each one of us. Through this collection of songs we hope to open the door to that room for all those of you who wish to explore it. How’s that for Room Service?’
Room 29 is set for a release on March 17 via Deutsche Grammophon. Find selected show dates below as well as seperate music videos for the first two songs – Tearjerker and its reprise called The Tearjerker Returns.
—