'Pavlov' (De Vrije Balloen #12, 1978).
Fay Lovsky is a Dutch singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known for her 1981 seasonal hit 'Christmas Was A Friend Of Mine'. Prior to her music career, she had a short stint in animation and comic art, contributing a couple of comic stories to the alternative comic magazine De Vrije Balloen (1977-1978) as part of Gerrit de Jager and Wim Stevenhagen's Prutswerk team.
Early life and career
Fay Luyendijk was born in 1955 in Leiden as the daughter of physicians Willem Luyendijk (1917-1995) and Tonny Luyendijk-Elshout (1921-2012). While as a high school student, she already performed Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel songs in bars, she initially chose a career in visual arts. During the mid-1970s, she studied Graphic and Audiovisual Design at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, where among her fellow students were the future comic creators Wim Stevenhagen, Gerrit de Jager, Paul Schindeler and Lex van de Oudeweetering. During her student years, and just like De Jager and Stevenhagen, she contributed a couple of short animated segments to the TV quiz 'Twee Voor Twaalf'.
'Zangopname' (De Vrije Balloen #10, 1977).
Prutswerk
When Stevenhagen and De Jager began contributing comics to the alternative comic magazine De Vrije Balloen under the "Prutswerk" banner, their fellow students Schindeler and Luyendijk initially joined in. In 1977, Fay Luyendijk had her first story published in issue #10. In the two-page gag 'Zangopname', she spoofed a singer in a recording duo, singing a full page of jabbertalk. After she is required to do the entire bit again because one small part was not good, it is discovered that the tape wasn't recording. Luyendijk returned in De Vrije Balloen #12 (1978) with a gag page about a professor experimenting with Pavlovian conditioning. In the following issue, the entire Prutswerk team (Stevenhagen-De Jager-Luyendijk-Schindeler) worked together in creating the 5-page space story 'Jan Boterman' (De Vrije Balloen #13, 1978). While Gerrit de Jager and Wim Stevenhagen moved on to becoming prominent creators in the Dutch field of comics, Fay Luyendijk's contributions have remained anecdotal try-outs for an artist known for completely different artistic accomplishments.
Musical career
During the 1980s, Fay Luyendijk became a prominent representative of Dutch new wave music. Initially, she recorded at home using the so-called sound-on-sound technique, where what is recorded on one track is dubbed onto the other track together with a new voice or instrument signal. In her compositions, she experimented freely with a variety of oddball sounds and unexpected instruments, like the musical saw, the theremin and the ukelele. After releasing her first single 'Party Time' (1980) under the name "Fay Lovesick", she quickly settled on the stage name "Fay Lovsky". Her debut album 'Sound On Sound' (1980) was quickly followed by 'Confetti' (1981), which contained her biggest hit, the seasonal 'Christmas Was A Friend Of Mine'. Her first albums and singles were released by De 1000 Idioten Records, a record label initiated by the art group De Enschedese School.
After two more solo albums during the 1980s ('Origami' in 1983 and 'Cinema' in 1985), she began collaborations with a variety of other artists, for instance joining The Magnificent 7 with Henny Vrienten and Joost Belinfante, a band playing classic film and TV music. She also appeared on two albums of The Beau Hunks, a musical ensemble co-initiated by graphic designer Piet Schreuders to record and perform vintage film music from the 1930s, like the Laurel & Hardy and The Little Rascals movie soundtracks. With the group The Veggies, she performed musical interludes on Dutch radio.
The 1992 'JoPo in MoNo' album and the 1996 album 'Fay Lovsky & La Bande Dessinée', both with album art by Joost Swarte.
At times, Lovsky's music had connections with the world of comics. In 1992, she composed and recorded the jazz comedy album 'JoPo in MoNo', containing twelve songs inspired by Joost Swarte's comic creation Jopo de Pojo. Swarte provided the graphic design of the release, and, in the guise of his character Anton Makassar, also wrote the liner notes. One of the tracks, 'Appellation Controlée', became the theme song for a French culinary TV program. During the 1990, Lovsky founded the band La Bande Dessinée (the French word for "comics"), with whom she also recorded albums. Both had album art by Joost Swarte. In addition, she has performed musical saw and ukelele with the French folk ensemeble Les Primitifs du Futur, a band co-founded by underground comix artist Robert Crumb.
In later years, Lovsky has continued to perform and record with special musical ensembles, for instance dedicated to accompanying music for popular children's books of re-recordings of classic children's songs. In 2007, she made a musical soundtrack with accompanying soundscape for the 1927 French film 'Le Mystère de la Tour Eiffel'. In 2024, she performed "questionable songs" songs on stage during her 'Politiek Correct?' tour, while cartoonist and sand artist Gerrie Hondius provided visual commentary and illustrations.
Recognition
In 2000, Fay Lovsky received the "Golden Harp" fo her contributions to Dutch music.
Fay Lovsky portrayed by Gerrie Hondius for the 2024 tour 'Politiek Correct?'.