Lizzy Mercier Descloux / Rosa Yemen
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$25.00
Martine-Elisabeth "Lizzy" Mercier Descloux (16 December 1956 – 20 April 2004) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, composer, actress, writer and painter. With her partner, Michel Esteban, she helped establish the store Harry Cover, temple of the punk movement in France, and the new wave magazine Rock News. She struck up friendships with Patti Smith and Richard Hell when visiting New York in 1975, and both contributed material to her first book, Desiderata. She and Esteban moved to New York in 1977, meeting Michael Zilkha, with whom Esteban formed Ze Records. With guitarist D.J. Barnes (Didier Esteban), Mercier Descloux formed the performance art duo Rosa Yemen, and recorded an eponymous mini-album for ZE Records in 1978.
It was on her return from a visit to New York in April 2003 that she was diagnosed with Cancer. Lizzy died, in April 2004, right by the sea in the tiny port of Saint Florent in Corsica where she had chosen to end her days. Her ashes, according to her wishes, were scattered at sea, her second home.
Hard to believe as it is, two dolphins appeared near the boat and accompanied her ashes, mingled with the petals of wild flower, far out to sea, as far as where the dividing currents part ways to Spain and Italy. She rarely dropped anchor in life and now, at last, she is sailing free forever.
Rosa Yemen is a duo of Lizzy Mercier Descloux and her then roomate DJ Banes. This recording was recorded live. Lizzy Mercier Descloux 's Press Color (1979) + Rosa Yemen (1978) It ' s not enough to find out what it 's all about. Included as bonus material. Please keep in mind that this was recorded in 1978 and the fact that it reminds me of a nervous more experimental version of Sonic Youth . It's lo-fi, hypnotic strange and beautiful and if you are familiar with Lizzy Mercier Descloux ' S later output this is more mimimalistic and a touch darker.
This EP appears amongst the bonus tracks on Lizzy Mercier Descloux's Press Color album bit is massively different to anything on that record, with extremely loud and out-of-tune guitars, nonsensical wailing courtesy of Lizzy, minimal percussion (sometimes done with chopsticks), and a few samples. Very weird and compelling. Closing track "Tumour" is a witty rewrite of "Fever," changing every instance of the word "fever" with ... well, you know. It puts a sad-twist on a light-hearted song that you can snap your fingers along to. It becomes even sadder when you learn that Lizzy Mercier Descloux passed away in 2004 from a tumour...
