From Gainsbourg To Lulu

"It's an homage, almost a gift that I wanted to give my father."

Last time we saw Lulu, Serge's last child, he was two years old and had joined his father on stage at the Zenith in Paris just before Serge started singing "Hey Man Amen".

At 25, Lulu in turn invites his father to share a musical opus: a tribute album. It's a reunion he never intended celebrating alone, so he devised a guest-list that would be the envy of any royal wedding. An extraordinarily gifted group; Vanessa Paradis, Johnny Depp, Scarlett Johansson, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Angelo Debarre, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Bona, Mathieu Chedid, Shane MacGowan

"I wanted my father's songs to be heard all over France, but internationally as well. I wanted them to touch a different audience, so I created it with an eclectic casting. It's an ambitious project, but it merits it."
The album, with a play on words for a title (From Gainsbourg to Lulu, and not the contrary), is the first work entirely orchestrated by Lulu: He plays the piano, conducts, sings and arranges

Lucien "Lulu" Gainsbourg has followed the family footsteps to pursue music, starting piano at 5 and then going on to attend the Music Conservatory of Paris, and later the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which he recently graduated.
He has been recording since the age of 15, the same year when he recorded a duet with his mother, "Ne Dis Rien".
With such an influential artist model as his father, Lulu is furthering the Gainsbourg legacy as a talented musician, arranger and composer in his own right.
Multicoloured, the record fluctuates between classic Jazz (a facet that his first EP reveals, for which Lulu called on experts Richard Bona and Angelo Debarre) and Californian pop (the very romantic Ne Dis Rien shared with the actrice Mélanie Thierry), a sober lyricism (Je suis venu te dire je m'en vais brilliantly interpreted by Rufus Wainwright) and the extraordinary melancholy (Manon hoisted to the summit by the Francophile Marianne Faithfull). Rich in collaborations, From Gainsbourg to Lulu, is filled with duos either sensual and in love (La Ballade de Melody Nelson shared with Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp), bilingual (Bonnie and Clyde, beautifully adapted in English for Scarlett Johansson, who transforms for the occasion in the irresistible Bardot of modern times) or explosive (Shane McGowan from the Pogues was designated for the sensational adaptation of Sous le soleil exactement, Iggy Pop for Initials BB).
Lulu imagines this tribute album as the first chapter to a story yet to come, in which he'll continue to explore his musical influences both with his voice and his playing on the cello and the piano.

This is an ensemble, at the same time eclectic and wonderfully coherent, emanating the tenderness of a paternal offering, as well as the splendour and greatness of beautiful promises.