VIDEO: Sheffield's Jarvis Cocker lines up new album

Cocker has teamed up with pianist and songwriter Chilly Gonzales for 'Room 29’ - a themed LP based around 'a song-cycle concerning the goings-on in Room 29 of the Château Marmont hotel in Hollywood'.

The album, which is out on March 17, was recorded by long-term Gonzales collaborator Renaud Letang at Ferber Studios in Paris.

The basic instrumentation of the album is piano and voice with the Kaiser Quartett contributing strings to several tracks.

Other musicians featured on the record include the Macedonian symphonic orchestra, Macedonia, flautist Nathalie Hauptman, French horn player Hasko Kroeger & soprano singer Maud Techa.

Cocker and Gonzalez will be performing the album at London’s Barbican Theatre from March 23-25, 2017.

Cocker, who grew up in Intake, Sheffield, said: “Featuring contributions from film historian David Thomson and the stories of famous former occupants of the room such as Jean Harlow and Howard Hughes, the show will also attempt to unpick the way a heady concoction dreamt up in the immediate vicinity of the hotel went on to intoxicate the entire population of planet Earth. Or, to quote the sub-title of David Thomson’s book The Big Screen, it is also the story of the movies and what they did to us.”

“For the duration of one evening the entire audience will be occupants of Room 29. You will be greeted by our concierge and you will be given a key. Sit down, get comfortable – it will be our pleasure to serve up a night of entertainment like no other: Room 29 may be a real location in Hollywood, California – but it is also a place within each one of us. Through this collection of songs we hope to open the door to that room for all those of you who wish to explore it. How’s that for Room Service?”

The tracklist of the album, which will be issued on the Deutsche Grammophon label, is as follows:

01 Room 2902 Marmont Overture03 Tearjerker04 Interlude 1 – Hotel Stationery05 Clara06 Bombshell07 Belle Boy08 Howard Hughes Under the Microscope09 Salomé10 Interlude 2 – 5 Hours a Day11 Daddy, You’re Not Watching Me12 The Other Side13 The Tearjerker Returns14 A Trick of the Light15 Room 29 (Reprise)16 Ice Cream As Main Course