hypersongs

Catherine Ribeiro

A French singer and actress of Portuguese parentage who, with the composer Patrice Moullet as Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, made the long, intense records Nº2 (1970), Ame debout (1971) and Paix (1972).

Lyon, Dylan adaptations and 2 Bis

Christiane Marie Marguerite Ribeiro was born in Lyon on September 22, 1941, of Portuguese parents, and grew up in modest circumstances in Saint-Fons; her father was a Rhone-Poulenc worker close to the communists, and her mother is said to have passed on a fado-like voice. In 1963 she acted in Godard's Les Carabiniers, where she met the composer Patrice Moullet. From 1964 to 1966 she recorded about fifteen tracks, first for Estudio in Portugal and then for Barclay, many of them French adaptations of Bob Dylan, and EPs including Dieu me pardonne (1965), Le Chasseur (1966) and Lorsque le bateau viendra (1967). On April 12, 1966 she appeared in Jean-Marie Perier's photo du siecle for Salut les copains.

In the summer of 1968 she recorded a demo with the group 2 Bis, later Alpes, which led to a contract with Disques Festival. Catherine Ribeiro + 2Bis (1969) was followed by Nº2 (1970), the name referring to the previous one; the group was noticed after an unplanned appearance at the Aix-en-Provence festival, and in July 1970 played Port Leucate. Moullet was the only constant member, with each record featuring different players.

Philips and the Alpes years

Ame debout (1971) and Paix (1972) came out on Philips, with Le Rat debile et l'Homme des champs, Libertes ? (1975, Fontana), Le Temps de l'autre (1977), Passions (1979) and La Deboussole (1980) to follow; Paix is called their masterpiece, with the 25-minute "Un jour... la Mort". They played over 500 concerts, from the Olympia to churches and the Fete de l'Humanite, among them Sainte-Gudule cathedral in Brussels on December 16, 1972 to about 4,000 people. Telerama called her a grande pretresse de la chanson francaise in 1974. She made solo records too, Le Blues de Piaf (1977) and Jacqueries (1978, on texts by Prevert, with its cover altered after an objection from Prevert's widow). The Alpes ended in 1981 or 1982, and she played two weeks at Bobino in 1982, staged by Daniel Mesguich.

She was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1985, and later made Percuphonante (1986), 1989... deja ! (1988) and Fenetre ardente (1993), returned to the stage in 1992 and at the Bouffes du Nord in 1995, and gave her final concert at the Bataclan on January 11, 2008. She published Poemes en la 440 (1994), Femme de parole (1998) and L'Enfance (1999). She died on August 23, 2024, in Martigues, aged 82. Anthology Recordings reissued Nº2, Ame debout and Paix in September 2018, Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky rating them 8.3, 8.2 and 8.5, and the Quietus called Nº2 a fervent and at times remarkable first point of entry. Kim Gordon and Julian Cope are among her admirers, and Circuit des Yeux covered "Soeur de race" in 2018.

Albums

  • Nº2 1970 · Festival

    Her 1970 album with Patrice Moullet and Denis Cohen, ending with the nearly nineteen-minute "Poeme non epique".

Songs

  • Poeme non epique Nº2 · 1970

    The nearly nineteen-minute last track of Nº2, a long vocal over instruments that build psychedelically.

Sources

  1. Catherine Ribeiro, Wikipedia
  2. Catherine Ribeiro, Wikipedia (French)
  3. Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, Wikipedia
  4. Avant-garde singer and actress Catherine Ribeiro has died aged 82, The Needle Drop (2024-08)