theunderestimator-2: French visionary/ singer/ poet Lizzy Mercier Descloux captured by Michael Esteb
French visionary/ singer/ poet Lizzy Mercier Descloux captured by Michael EstebaninPatti Smith’sNY apartment back in 1975.
Though to some she may appear to have been nothing more than a footnote to the careers of icons like Patti Smith, Richard Hell & Chet Baker, that audacious artist and devotee of Rimbaud&Godard was an innovator who witnessed numerous pivotal moments in musical and cultural history upon her arrival in New York, at a time when the city was becoming a melting pot for various late-’70s subcultures, such as American Punk and No Wave.
An archetypal outsider feeling suffocated in her working class family environment in France, she decided to drop out of Art School and follow her partner Michael EstebantoNew York in themid-’70s, witnessing the birth of punk and no wave with the Ramones, James Chance and Patti Smith. She always stood out from the crowd: she started a punk zine with her partner, who co-founded ZE Records,befriendedPatti Smith who shared a mutual love for Rimbaud, became a muse for Richard Hell, released poetry books, appeared in Amos Poe’s documentary ‘Blank Generation’, made five albums in various no wave/ bouncing pre-Talking Heads post-disco/ Soweto jive/ loose jazz styles and marked herself out as a globe-trotter with more passport stamps than Tintin, living and travelling all around the world from the Bahamas&Rio De JaneirotoSouth Africa&Corsica, where she died in relative obscurity in 2004 from cancer.
Fri, 06 May 2022 16:23:22
