b-guided > Barcelona

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Primavera Sound 2018

By Sergio Pulido 20.04.18

Although perhaps best known to the general public for her interesting career as an actress, Charlotte Gainsbourg has the musical genes of both her father Serge and her mother Jane Birkin in her DNA. Last year Gainsbourg released her fourth and most critically acclaimed almum as a singer: Rest. Having probably one of the greatest of all French musicians for a father her approach to making music was as an interpreter, singing the songs composed for her by, amongst others her father, Air, Jarvis Cocker and Beck and other masters of alternative pop. With this new album she’s composed the songs and written the lyrics, triggered by the tragedy of her older sister Kate Barry’s suicide in 2013. Faced with the tragedy she began to write in a cathartic way, to address the ghosts of a departed loved one, and to explore the death of the father back in 1991.

As a result we have an album the main theme of which is death, and by extension also talks about the alcoholism that killed those two missing members of his family, about the family itself, about her relationship with film director Yvan Attal, or about the poetry of Sylvia Plath, another famous suicide case. The interesting thing about the work, produced by SebastiAn, is that having these dark-themed texts, she comes up with a luminous electro-funk feel with catchy melodies, making for easy listening and taking away the hardness of the subject matter. The album also includes collaborations from Paul McCartney and Guy-Manuel of Homem Christo of Daft Punk, who each contribute a composition. Charlotte returns to touring for the first time since 2012, and this will be an excellent opportunity to hear one of the best pop albums released last year live.

  • Charlotte Gainsbourg

    Charlotte Gainsbourg, photo ©Collier Shorr

  • Charlotte Gainsbourg
  • Primavera Sound 2018