French Kiss Chilly Gonzales

• 1French Kiss03:40
• 2Il Pleut Sur Notre-Dame (feat. Bonnie Banane)04:16
• 3Lac Du Cerf (feat. Christine Ott)04:57
• 4Nos Meilleures Vies (feat. Teki Latex)03:54
• 5Wonderfoule (feat. Arielle Dombasle)02:46
• 6Cut Dick02:58
• 7Romance Sans Paroles No 302:27
• 8Gangstavour01:22
• 9Piano A Paris (feat. Juliette Armanet)03:32
• 10Richard Et Moi (feat. Richard Clayderman)02:11
• 11Message Personnel02:16
• Total Runtime34:19

Info for French Kiss

Chilly Gonzales is a phenomenon. The 51-year-old singer, pianist, producer and entertainer continues to blur the boundaries between classical music, jazz, electronic, pop and even rap in brilliant and often surprising ways. The Canadian artist, whose real name is Jason Charles Beck, has worked with artists such as Feist, Drake, Jarvis Cocker and Daft Punk, among others. Nothing seems to be musically impossible for him.

On his new album “French Kiss”, the multiple Grammy winner has dedicated himself to French sounds. The inspiration came to him in Paris, where he lived for several years before settling in his current adopted home of Cologne. It is his first album in French, or “the language of Molière and Bangalter,” as the accompanying text says. The latter refers to Thomas Bangalter, one half of the now disbanded band Daft Punk.

As so often, Chilly Gonzales combines musical genius with wordplay on his new long player. When he starts off singing "Je vous French Kiss" in an almost unsteady manner to the sounds of Claude Debussy's "Clair de lune", you can't help but smile. And also with the bizarre, provocative rhymes that follow: “Je parle anglais comme Tony Blair, je parle anglais Adolf Hitler, mais en français je prononce le R.” (“I speak English like Tony Blair, I speak German like Adolf Hitler. But in French I emphasize the R.”)

The unpredictable Gonzales sings - and speaks - the duet "Il Pleut Sur Notre-Dame" - a dreamy chanson - with singer Bonnie Banane. On the instrumental track "Lac Du Cerf", the pianist is accompanied by the French musician Christine Ott on the Ondes Martenot - a monophonic electronic musical instrument that works and sounds similar to a theremin. The result is a wonderfully atmospheric piece.

The eponymous “Cut Dick” is a song by the French artist Quentin Dupieux, also known as Mr. Oizo, who had a big hit with “Flat Beat” in 1999. He always imagined an orchestrated version of this, says Gonzales in the PR text. He had already played the song live. With Dupieux's blessing, he has now "gonzified" "Cut Dick" on his album. The song “Richard Et Moi” is dedicated to the cuddly pianist Richard Clayderman, who, fittingly, also plays. He talks about Clayderman's big hit "Ballade Pour Adeline" and Astérix and Obélix.

The wordplay in most of the songs can hardly be translated and many things can only be understood with appropriate language skills. But even without understanding the lyrics, Chilly Gonzales captivates his listeners with “French Kiss” because musically and melodically the album conveys a wonderful lightness and a pleasant, hard-to-describe nostalgia. That sounds, to sum it up with a song title from the album, “Wonderfoule”.

Chilly Gonzales

Chilly Gonzales
Grammy-winning Canadian pianist and entertainer currently living in Europe, is known as much for the intimate piano touch of best-selling albums Solo Piano I and Solo Piano II as for his showmanship and composition for award-winning stars.

Gonzo, as he is known to close collaborators, aims to be a man of his time, approaching the piano with classical and jazz training but with the attitude of a rapper.

Chilly Gonzales holds the Guinness world record for the longest solo concert at over 27 hours. He performs and writes songs with Jarvis Cocker, Feist and Drake, among others. With Never Stop, Chilly Gonzales composed a global hit for the inaugural Apple iPad 2 campaign. In 2014 he won a Grammy for his collaboration on Daft Punk’s Best Album of the Year and composed the best-selling book of easy piano pieces Re-Introduction Etudes. With the 2015 album Chambers, Chilly Gonzales devoted himself to finding a modern take on chamber music before completing the Solo Piano Trilogy in 2018 with Solo Piano III. 2020 sees the return of Chilly Gonzales to the stage with a new program that opens, as always, with various medleys of intimate pieces from the Solo Piano Trilogy.

Both hits and hidden surprises from the rest of his repertoire will be found interspersed with new Christmas-themed Masterclasses full of playful explanations about how music works. This December 2020 tour … so close to the Holidays … will surely contain some very Chilly Christmas surprises.

This album contains no booklet.