paris 1978

au pigall’s (her first record) was the first record i heard by ingrid caven. H played it to me late one night in his high, high, high ceilinged appartment. and yes, that night i also learned that H met brad davis on a train crossing france. a night-train, if i remember correctly. yes, there was envy on my side – although i guess i would have gone for the other one…the facial hair-thing, i know. years later i did spend 2 nights with brad davis in some manner of speaking.

 

i knew of ingrid caven, as C introduced me to daniel schmid’s and rainer werner fassbinder’s work (and the french and the german reiser and so much more…) many years before when i was still in my teens. funny enough C did meet fassbinder in munich when he studied there. contrary to the above story i do not know what “meeting” here meant.

but i have to admit that ingrid caven never fully registered with me. not until i saw her singing brahm’s lullaby in hors saison by daniel schmid. my mother sung it to me, too. giving this, and my liking at the time of exactly these places as shown in the movie (old hotels with many ghosts in the alps) the scene really stuck with me. so this is the moment i became consciously aware of her. and yes, the movie is very beautiful.

as it turned out it was difficult to impossible to find her records. well, it still isn’t easy to find her records as they are all out of print. and over the years ingrid caven somehow disappeared again from my radar….until i found a copy of chambre 1050. and then i had a request for some more caven. yes, this was quite a long time ago. but eventually i got around to ask H for his copy to make rip. funny thing is that not a week later i did find a copy for myself at a local thrift store. to my pleasure this particular streak of luck continued. this just as an outlook of posts to come…

breathless. that’s the word that springs to my mind listening to this record. certain songs leave me breathless. one would expect the singer to become breathless with these songs, but no, it is the listener. so, enjoy a great voice under full control by a great singer on au pigall’s, ripped lovingly from vinyl. fomr H’s copy, of course. take a deep breath and enjoy.