Artist/ Author: Joost Swarte / Fay Lovsky Title : Jopo in Mono Publisher: Oog & Blik / de Harmonie, 1991 Number of pages: booklet contains 16 pages /audio cd by Fay Lovsky contains 12 numbers Text / Language: Measurements: 5.4x 4.9 inches Condition: mint / still sealed extra information on this item: Rare and collectible. Here is a text from a blog on this publication which i found: When putting two completely unique artists out of two different disciplines together in one room, the chance that it might lead to something brilliant is equal to the chance that it won’t work. For these two it turned out to be option one: brilliant. Joost Swarte and Fay Lovsky are the ones we’re talking about. These two (both made in Holland) made their album ‘Jopo In Mono’ back in 1991. It’s based on the story of Joost Swarte’s underground comic-character ‘Jopo de Pojo’, a musically anti-hero, highly underestimated in his own opinion (even the alleycats don’t dig his shit) but always pretty positive in his own misery. Jopo de Pojo leads a life of failure, fun, sex and pretty bad rock and roll. Nevertheless Jopo is a character to love. I bought my first Joost Swarte album somewhere around 1988, it was a collection comics about Jopo and I fell in love with him (Jopo) and his creator’s style immediately. More albums and (signed) silk-screens by Swarte followed and off-course this beautifully designed CD ‘Jopo In Mono’ had to be in my collection too. Nowadays Swarte enjoys an international reputation as a graphic artist as well as a designer on whatever his fancy takes away: creating posters, cartoons, glass windows and stamps, or designing watches, buildings or bookcases. The woman that made the music and wrote the lyrics to make Jopo come alive on CD is Fay Lovsky (born Fay Luyendijk). She is what you could call a ‘do-it-yourself’-artist. Always trying to make music with somewhat exotic instruments such as the theremin, ’singing’ saws or the noseflute (there is a ‘Duet For Noses’ on this Jopo-album!). In the mid-eighties she gained some fame with her music projects ‘La Bande Dessinée’ and with her bigband ‘Magnificent Seven’. But most (Dutch) people probably know her best because of her x-mas evergreen from 1981 ‘Christmas Was A Friend Of Mine‘. Lovsky is very inventive as well with music as with words. She’s responsible for probably one of the shortest and humourous bluessongs ever, ‘Yawn Blues‘ with brilliant lyrics: I woke up this morning, I went back to bed. The one you hear doing Jopo’s yawning is Joost Swarte. Another peak on this album is the song that even made it as the openingstune of a culinair show on French national TV: ‘Appellation Controlée‘ (part of the lyrics: Brown paper bag, au bord de la Seine, Ile de la Cité. Chateau Migraine, when you wake up the next day.). On the album followed by a disturbingly short ‘Appellation Non Controlee’ including hiccups and a watersplash. Did I already mention that Joost Swarte won a prize for the design of this booklet? Well, he did.
Jopo in Mono and the ROUSERS album are both available at www.ftn-books.com
