Photo: Press
Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzales have collaborated on a new album ‘Room 29’ inspired by the ghosts of Hollywood golden age.
The album, released on March 17 on Deutsche Grammophon, is described as a “21st Century song-cycle” and was inspired by Cocker’s stay in room 29 of the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood while on tour with Pulp, where he began wondering about the stories of the stars who might have played on the suite’s baby grand piano.
The three-year collaboration followed the pair’s previous work together on a cover of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘I’m Still Here’ for a short film called Six By Sondheim by Todd Haynes in 2012. This longer work focuses on the Chateau Marmont and its historic links with the Hollywood film industry and more nefarious LA characters. Researching details of the lives of figures such as Jean Harlow, Mark Twain’s daughter Clara and notorious gangster Mickey The Haberdasher, the pair looked to tell the tales of the ghosts of people who had stayed in room 29 throughout the years.
Cocker and Gonzales, who decided to work together after realising they both lived in Paris, premiered the album as a work-in-progress at Hamburg’s Kampnagel in January last year and will return to the same venue to play the finished album over three nights on 17-19 March before playing it at the Barbican in London on 23-25 March, the Berlin Volksbühne on 28-30 March, in Paris and at festivals over the summer. Watch the trailer for the album below:
