Charlotte Gainsbourg
Charlotte Gainsbourg, "IRM" (Because Music/Elektra)
Release Date: January 26, 2010
The dreamy-voiced daughter of French actor/singer Serge Gainsbourg and British actress/singer Jane Birkin has come impressively into her acting/singing own. She won the best actress award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for her role in "Antichrist," among other acting accolades, and delivered the critically acclaimed album "5:55" in 2006. Her new collection, released Dec. 7 in the United Kingdom, was written and produced by Beck, with whom Gainsbourg worked for five days before asking him to partner with her on the full album. Single "Heaven Can Wait" is also a duet with the musician. "It was great to be able to extend the process and have different moods each time," Gainsbourg says about the year-and-a-half that she flew between France and Los Angeles for sessions. More percussive and expansive than "5:55," "IRM" includes themes of "memory and the past and the brain and death," according to Gainsbourg, and incorporates MRI sounds stemming from her experience after a cerebral hemorrhage in 2007. Gainsbourg's touring plans for the album are still under discussion. "I'm very nervous," she says. "It's so comfortable to be in the studio with someone I admire, but it's a whole different story to be bold about it."
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