Chimera is basically two young English women named Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff who were from the “West Country” of England (basically the southwestern tip of the country in and around Cornwall); they were first cousins and look like teenagers on the cover photograph. They had a backing band of a variety of fine musicians, including several having considerable renown in rock and roll.
The real attraction of Chimera for me is the lush female vocals; either woman individually is amazing enough, but when both are singing, it sounds like a choir. The opening song, “Come into the Garden” has a quiet musical build-up before Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff begin delivering the first lyric at such a measured pace as to make one check the turntable to see whether it is set to the proper speed. Many of the songs have a similarly earthy tone in their lyrics that is a fine counterpoint to the unusual musical settings.
Paul Martin notes that about half of the songs are geared mostly to the vocals, with the second and third songs, “The Grail” and “Sad Song for Winter” being particular favorites of mine. Lisa Bankoff handles solo vocals on the latter song. On the other songs, the band is highlighted more strongly, with the closing song “Peru” sounding especially good to these ears. Of these songs, Martin says: “The band dominated numbers can best be described as Fairport Convention meets Little Feat as they have a blend of blues-funk and folk rock in them.”
All of the songs were written by Lisa Bankoff, showing true originality and a wide variety of moods.
The manager of Chimera (and possibly the producer for at least some of the recording sessions) is none other than Nick Mason, the drummer for Pink Floyd and the only bandmember who has appeared on all of the PF albums. Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff had boldly gone backstage to a music festival where Pink Floyd was performing, introducing themselves to Nick Mason and telling him that they were songwriters.
Lisa Bankoff was quoted on one Internet blog as saying that Mal Luker is their record producer; Luker also plays guitar and keyboards on “Sad Song for Winter”.
Francesca Garnett and Lisa Bankoff self-published a book in 2002 about their experiences in the 1960’s London music scene, called Making It! Famous Names and Silly Girls. Her son Sacha Edmundson reported on the Time Has Told Me blog that Lisa Bankoff died in 2003.
(November 2013)
