http://en.wikipedia.org/w...rid_Chavez

omg is this forreal??? i cant believe it hasnt been talked about here, anyone know if its on the bootleg circuit???

I'll second that OMG! I'd love to get a hold of this material. I would assume it must be out and about in some form or another, otherwise how did anyone get a hold of the titles?

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Trust me, I've discussed this quite a bit the past few years. For the record, there was never any album called 'Little Girls With 99 Lives', nor was there one ever compiled with that title. If anything, that is simply a bootleg title, as I am aware of one or two spurious Ingrid bootleg CDs doing the rounds trying to pass themselves off as having some unreleased Prince involvement when that's in fact far from the truth. However, if you're a fan of Ingrid's music and lyrics, then read on...

Ingrid Chavez has written poetry since her adolescence. Raised in an Américano-Mexican household, she moved to Minneapolis in 1986 at the age of 21. At the end of 1987, she met Prince in a pub after writing to him. A few days later, she was invited to Paisley Park and took part in the sessions of the album 'Lovesexy', credited as 'The Spirit Child'. The first sessions for the recording of Ingrid Chavez's debut album took place in 1989. The idea was for Prince to integrate into music Ingrids poems utisiling her unique whispering vocal delivery. At the same time, Ingrid appeared in the Prince film 'Graffiti Bridge' in which she appears as the love interest, 'Muse'.

The sessions for her debut album resumed in March 1991 with engineer Michael Koppelman (the sound engineer for Prince & a respected musician in his own right) at the helm. Prince recorded five titles, 'Elephant Box', 'Slappy Dappy', 'Jadestone', 'Whispering Dandelions' and 'Heaven Must Be Near'. Wishing to maintain her independence from Prince, Chavez went to Warner Bros. to discuss the contents of the album, after having recorded two songs, 'Hippy Blood' and 'Little Mama', with Koppelman. Not the smartest of career moves. The executives of Warner were enthusiastic about the album and wanted Ingrid to sing rather than to recite her poetry. This held little interest for Prince, who dropped any remaining interest in the project, leaving Michael Koppelman and Levi Seacer Jr to finish the album alone and devoid of any further 'purple' input.

The album was finally released on September 24th 1991 via Prince's Paisley Park label. Called 'May 12th, 1992', (so entitled due to Ingrid wanting it to represent a year in her life - a 'snapshot'), it is hauntingly ethereal with a kind of soft melancholic feel. It's a great debut album from anyone, but as a Paisley Park release one of the few jewels to come out of the gates that showed plenty of promise that, alas, was never realised.

Unfortunately, album sales were poor and it failed to make even the briefest of appearances in any chart. Today it is mainly sold not on merit but moreso a word of mouth release for Prince fans/collectors and fans of David Sylvian...

Meanwhile, Chavez sued Lenny Kravitz for not giving her credit for co-writing Madonna's 'Justify My Love'. Chavez's style consists of breathy spoken passages over heavy dance beats and this can be clearly heard in the Madonna track. Chavez is quoted as having said that Kravitz didn't write any of the lyrics and only came up with the phrase justify my love. She is also reported to have said that Madonna only changed one line of the entire song. She was finally given credit for the lyrics plus a rumoured couple of million dollars in an out-of-court settlement.

In 1992 Ingrid left the Prince camp and worked with Ryuichi Sakamoto on a track called 'Heartbeat (Tainai Kaiki II)' where she met David Sylvian. They found they were inseperable, fell in love quickly, and were soon married. They have three children.

Ingrid & David pictured with David's family (1999)


Ex-Japan singer David Sylvian was looking for a female vocal singer for Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1992's 'Heartbeat II' single. Around that time Chavez, who was a big admirer of Sylvian's voice, sent her debut solo album to his management company, Opium (Arts) Ltd., in London, UK. Listening to the album reportedly convinced Sylvian that she had the perfect voice for the track. Not long after Sylvian and Chavez met they fell deeply in love and were insepearble - soon marrying. Sylvian relocated to Minneapolis for a time before the family relocated to New Hampshire (USA) with their son Tinondre and two daughters, Ameera, and Isobel.

Some of the tracks in question were recorded during the formation of what eventually morphed into David Sylvian's wonderful 'Dead Bees On A Cake' album. Ingrid's tracks were eventually made available as extra tracks on the following CD singles by David Sylvian released on Virgin records in 1999:
(Ingrid tracks are highlighted in bold)

'I Surrender' CD Single #1
Tracklist:
1) I Surrender
2) Les Fleurs Du Mal
3) Starred and Dreaming

'I Surrender' CD Single #2
Tracklist:
1) I Surrender (Single edit)
2) Whose Trip Is This?
3) Remembering Julia


'Godman' CD Single*
Tracklist:
1) Godman
2) Shadowland
3) Godman (Wagon Christ remix)
4) Shadowland (Northfield)
5) Godman (Guy Sigworth remix)

*This CD single also features a great CD-Rom element in the form of a beautiful short film shot by David and Ingrid to be used as an EPK by the record company. It lasts around 13 minutes and is described in the liner notes thus:

'Winter 1998, Virgin Recrds require an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) to coincide with the release of David Sylvian's first solo album in 12 years, 'Dead Bees On A Cake'. With no prior experience in the field of film-making, David Sylvian and his wife Ingrid Chavez decide to shoot and direct the piece themselves. What started out as a commerical commission becomes an intimate glimpse into the life and philosophy behind the work'.

David Sylvian's 'Dead Bees On A Cake' album (along with recent release 'Blemish'), is quite possibly his most personal and intimate of works. It features further contributions from Ingrid, and also features a certain Mr T. Barbarella playing on a number of tracks.

In 2004, Sylvian released 'Blemish' - an album that themeatically deals with the breakdown of a special relationship. To date, it is still unknown if David and Ingrid survived this tumoltuous period. One can only hope that they did.

Sadly for us, the trade-off with her relationship with Sylvian has meant that her once promising career has all but faded. We have been afforded an occasional glimpse of her haunting vocals in some of the her husband's rather erratic output. That said however, search hard enough and you will be rewarded. As previously mentioned, she appears as lead vocalist on four of the tracks from Sylvian's 1999 cd single release, 'I Surrender', stretched over the two different formats: 'Les Fleur Du Mal' (6:51) & 'Starred And Dreaming' (2:01) on disc #1 & 'Whose Trip Is This?' (7:19) & 'Remembering Julia' (4:46) on disc #2. All absolutely wonderful (particularly 'Remembering Julia' and 'Who's Trip Is This?' which somewhat tantalisingly, showed great promise).

Ingrid can also be found adding vocals on a number of other releases by David Sylvian, namely the aforementioned 'Heartbeat'/'Heartbeat II (Tanai Kaiki II)' with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the laid back and longing 'Dead Bees On A Cake' album as well as the David Sylvian best of collection: 'Everything & Nothing'.

Hope this helps.

- BananaCologne

BananaCologne said:

ohh ok, are snowfall and lighthouse from the same sessions?