Gonzales Signs To Arts & Crafts For Soft Power

Gonzales — composer, producer, musician, dancer and good friend of Feist and Peaches — has signed a deal with Arts & Crafts to release Soft Power on June 3.

Gonzales (real name Jason Beck) co-produced his fifth full-length with Renaud Letang.

Gonzales fronted Toronto alternative rock band Son in the early '90s before leaving Canada in 1998. He settled in Berlin for two years where he immersed himself in hip-hop and declared himself to be the "President of the Berlin Underground." He moved to Paris in 2000 to produce and co-write Feist's Let It Die album (he did the same with The Reminder, which he co-produced with Letang). He also worked with Jane Birkin on her Fictions album and remixed tracks for Daft Punk and Bjork. He released Solo Piano in 2004.

"Gonzo left Canada some years ago seeking a base for his art," says Arts & Crafts co-owner and president Jeffrey Remedios. "It's an honour to be the ones bringing him back to Canada."

You can hear "Let's Ride Megamix," a remix of a Soft Power track, on his MySpace page. It features Peaches, Feist, Jarvis Cocker, SoCalled, Katie Moore, Mocky, Teki Latex, Katerine, Jamie Lidell, Abd Al Malik, Taylor Savvy, Princess Superstar and Ad Hawk. The site also features Soft Power opener "Working Together" and Teki Latex's remix of "Slow Down."

Gonzales is touring France, Germany, England and Switzerland before flying to Canada to play Montreal's La Tulipe on May 8 and Toronto's Jane Mallet Theatre the next evening.

Here are the tracks on Soft Power:

"Working Together"
"Slow Down"
"Theme From In-Between"
"Unrequited Love"
"Map Of The World"
"Modalisa"
"Apology"
"Let's Ride"
"C Major"
"Singing Something"
"Fortunately, Unfortunately"
"Slow Down" (remix featuring Teki Latex)
"Home Movies"