Chilly Gonzales

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About Chilly Gonzales

Renaissance man, polymath, agent of the avant-garde—there’s no easy way to sum up composer Chilly Gonzales. Born Jason Beck in Montreal in 1972, Gonzales trained as a classical pianist and helmed the alternative rock group Son before moving to Berlin in 1999. It was in Germany—collaborating with Peaches, making lo-fi hip-hop, and declaring himself President of the Berlin Underground—that he would become the artist he’s known as today. Gonzales’ gift lies in his singular expressions of established forms, whether he’s indulging in strange, grimy rap (2000’s The Entertainist), fashionable art pop (2002’s Presidential Suite), or refined minimalism (2004’s Solo Piano). On albums like 2008’s Soft Power and 2011’s brash The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales, he embraced a melange of those sounds and accumulated an impressive list of collaborators including Feist, Drake, Daft Punk, and Jarvis Cocker. But it’s his sparse piano pieces that have arguably made the greatest impact. With compositions like 2012’s gently restless “White Keys” and 2018’s dreamy “Pretenderness,” Gonzales evokes rich interior worlds.

HOMETOWN
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
BORN
March 20, 1972
GENRE
Pop

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