It's a small world we live in, at least that shows on some occasions. It is often associated with the term "six degrees of seperation". For artists, I believe, there are a lot fewer degrees in terms of knowing each other in the business. They have a lot of changing contacts and not many artists keep working with the same producer over and over. Is it to remain free in their creative process or did the sales not live up to the expectations? Over the years I grew to love the phrase "Never change a winning team".
In interviews with Charlotte Gainsbourg you would read how much she loved working with Air and Jarvis Cocker (who attended the concert) and how much they helped her to create the album she always wanted. Yet, she decided to work with Beck on her latest album. I can only conclude that she was up for a change and wanted to evolve even more as a singer. The musicians particularly live in a small world, as Beck has worked with Jane Birkin (who also attended) - the mother of Charlotte - before and that is why it was probably an obvious choice to work with him. I came across this 1996 TV show performance where Jane Birkin makes a surprise appearance with Beck to perform L'Anamour (fun fact: there is no evidence Beck speaks French and from the performance you wouldn't think he didn't but as he thanks Jane Birkin at the end, I get another feeling).
When I think of Jane Birkin I see those visually attractive album covers in my head with a young woman in a sexy pose. I instantly think back of when I was young(er) and watched the X-rated Emmanuelle movie (without my parents knowing of course). There was this striking outlook where she encountered a blonde lady who took a nude swim in the pool. There was this other horrifying bit where she got raped, but that's something else.
So, then there was the concert in London with Chilly Gonzales who has also worked with Jane Birkin. Coincidence? I guess not. Now it seems likely that Gonzales will produce Charlotte's next album but this is probably a too obvious choice. The crowd was quite anxious to see Charlotte perform and didn't really make an effort to enjoy Gonzales' performance. He had his own way to shut up the audience and made audience humm along to a simple melody where he builded up the sound and the lyrics and in the end screamed "And now shut the fuck up". He played a variety of piano tracks amongst which his version of Waves by Erol Alkan and Boys Noize. Of his own repertoire he choose Grudge, You snooze you lose, Take me to Broadway and Singing something. During that last song it was a real pity the audience didn't care to listen while this is such a lovely, sweet song and was performed just like that.
