The Pianoplayer: A lesbian love story

by Rosalie Sommer

  Whatever the case, Adolé tried to continue to deal professionally with the selected pieces of music. At the same time, her aim was still to make the joint album as imaginative as necessary and at the same time as entertaining and relaxed as possible. She would have loved to know what Michelle's opinion was about her selection and approach and which pieces of music she worked on herself in her own music studio. I wonder if they would fit in with the pieces she had already worked out and the whole album?

  Adolé decided that - since they were both adults - they would soon have to do a studio session together, as their managers had planned from the beginning, but Michelle persistently avoided it. In the end, it should be possible to do this between two music professionals. Especially since in her opinion a real single was still missing on the album, a piece of music that had the potential to become a hit. It had to be able to exist outside of their Schlager and classical circles, something like "New York, New York" or "Fly me to the moon". And something like that should be composed and recorded with a certain concentration and constructive teamwork.

  So the next morning she went straight to the small remote recording studio where Michelle used to work with her studio musician all to herself. In memory of the experience she had at that door last time, she knocked a little louder and more insistently this time. She entered when she heard a brief "Oui?" from inside. Michelles sat alone at the piano with her cell phone as a recording device and was surprised to get visitors so early. As usual, she said nothing, but nodded briefly to welcome them.

  Adolé then took matters into his own hands and, after a short squeeze, got to the point fairly quickly.

  "Michelle, shouldn't we lump together our own work and compare what we have so far? I understand that you don't want to work with me, but while you're composing your pieces here in the studio, we're working on other pieces out there in the other recording studio. We're also making some progress, but ultimately that's not what the inventor intended. Shouldn't we just have a studio session together for simplicity's sake, so that we can both contribute something to the project at the same time?

  Adolé silently expected protest, but nothing like this happened. Only a short thought and another nod signalled to her that Michelle had understood what she was about. Apparently, for the sake of the outcome, she was prepared to put her personal concerns in the background and tackle the matter. She had an objection, however, which did not take long to be formulated.

  "But just the two of us, nobody else. We should do it alone," she said briefly and succinctly as usual.

  Adolé briefly weighed up how and when this could be possible and then decided to agree. It occurred to her that the studio musicians had been working with her non-stop for weeks, so they were certainly happy to have a day or two off. So she agreed without further lamentation. They briefly discussed when they were both ready to compare their progress and set Wednesday and Thursday of the next week for this purpose. Adolé thanked Michelle briefly, smiled at her and left the small recording studio as quietly and deftly as she had entered it.

  As expected, the musicians were all happy with this development and the fact that they also had a few days off. So that the joy was worth it and because Adolé was so happy about this step in the right direction with the French keyboard player, she gave the band and the technicians the days until the weekend afterwards completely free. A little bit of relaxation did them all good and so they arranged to meet again for work in the studio on the Monday of the week after the tuning.

  Adolé knew Roswitha would not be pleased. From time to time she had to take such solitary actions on her own and decide independently what was important to her. She also liked to take responsibility for herself at times. She could rely on her intuition and her feeling, after all the whole production stood and fell with her. And her feeling told her clearly that they would need this time and that in the end they might even be further than what they had achieved with the whole team in the weeks of separate work.

  9.

  The time until Wednesday passed like chewing gum for Adolé. Finally the "normal" work on the album was over and the intensive time of the two star musicians alone was just around the corner. Adolé was as always punctual in the studio. There she was completely professional. They had agreed in a short WhatsApp message sequence without further incidents to start at noon.

  As Adolé had irritatingly observed in the course of the last few days, she was looking forward to this day with this troublemaker, who did everything to be disregarded and belittled by God and the world. Nevertheless, she was curious to see what they would be able to accomplish together and had brought one of her beloved lattes from her favourite American roasting house to celebrate the day.

  It didn't take long until Michelle also arrived at the studio. The morning had been beautiful so far, the sun was shining high from the sky and Adolé immediately noticed how light and summery Michelle was dressed. For the first time she noticed what a slim, sporty, almost perfect figure her companion had. She also noticed her shapely breasts, which instantly raised her pulse rate. A sight she found very attractive. She had to pull herself together to look into her eyes when they greeted each other formally and succinctly as always. They shook hands and then both turned to their scores.

  In order not to let an embarrassing silence arise in the first place, Adolé took the floor.

  "Would you like to hear some of our songs? We have recorded a few tracks here that I would like to play for you. I'm curious if you like them.". After an obligatory short "I'd love to." Adolé went to the mixing desk and expertly pushed a few buttons. Shortly afterwards, some brief impressions of her work so far were heard. Some of the songs she had already sung, some were still without lyrics, but the melody still gave them a first impression of the mood of the piece.

  Michelle was visibly surprised that the sound recordings outside her cocoon had already progressed so far and also that her actual core competence on the grand piano had been almost perfectly taken over by a studio musician. It was obvious that she had not expected to be replaced so easily.

  Adolé, who noticed this immediately, tried to reassure her and made her understand that the sequences had already been recorded by the studio pianist, merely to clarify the possibilities, and that Michelle could - if she wanted to - record these tone sequences afterwards. This would of course contribute to the authenticity of the whole record.

  They spent the afternoon interpreting the pieces that appealed to Michelle in various new ways and here and there Adolé even sang the pieces in a completely new way, only accompanied by Michelle's wonderful piano playing. The result was a fabulous atmosphere that was indeed reminiscent of the old unplugged concerts.

  The new recordings dragged on disproportionately long, as Adolé had carelessly given the sound technician some time off and therefore had to jump back and forth between the microphone and the mixing console himself.

  Overall, however, Adolé was surprised how smooth, productive and pleasant the work with the pianist could be. She still could not understand why this had not been the case from the beginning.

  At a late hour, as they were almost approaching the end of the day, Michelle suddenly took the floor. "Would you like to hear what I have so far?" Adolé was astonished by this sudden advance. "Of course!" it shot through Adolé's mind. How could she have forgotten to ask Michelle about her results?!

  "Oh, yes. Of course. Gladly," she hurried to reply and noticed the heat creeping up her neck again. She hated it when she was so unobservant. After all, today was supposed to be a review of what they had achieved so far and where they should start again. How could she assume that only she would perform her compositions?

  In addition, of course, she immediately noticed how skilfully the pianist had seized the opportunity and simply switched to the confidential "Du" without comment - an approach which, as Adolé noticed, she enjoyed more than she had expected. So she was looking forward to this joint session. Maybe at some point an opportunity
arose to talk to her in a normal way and just to talk about a few things.

  So Adolé took a seat on a bar stool behind the piano where Michelle was sitting, a position from which she could see both the keyboard and Michelle clearly. Michelle smiled at her and then turned to the piano with concentration. After a brief moment of focus, she put her fingertips on the keys and began a slow, jazzy piece. The intro immediately transported Adolé back to the smoky and wicked bars of her beloved New York of the 1930s, which had also served as inspiration for her own pieces. She closed her eyes, slowly swayed back and forth in time and got completely involved with this beautiful melody.

  After an intense musical introduction, Michelle suddenly began to sing a French text to this song. Surprised, Adolé opened her eyes, but immediately got a grip on herself again. She had expected a pure piece of music without lyrics, certainly not with French singing, but somehow she liked this combination. She noticed the beautiful voice of Michelle, which she had never heard before, closed her eyes again and enjoyed this rare and beautiful performance.

  Adolé was totally flabbergasted. What a beautiful sound, what an extraordinary melody. She was captivated by this beautiful performance and the rich, skilful tone of Michelle's voice. This was the first time Adolé was completely sure that Roswitha's unusual idea, which she had thought was a bad joke at first, would be a success.

  When Michelle had finished her lecture, Adolé opened her eyes. Only now did she realize the tears of emotion she had shed. Her face was wet with tears, and so she secretly searched for a handkerchief. While Michelle looked at each other expectantly to ask her opinion, Adolé fished a tissue from her pocket and blown his nose away from her.

  Having regained her breath and composure, she merely produced an inarticulate "Oh... that was so beautiful. To hide her puffy eyes from Michelle, she jumped up and shouted "I'll be in the kitchen for a moment..." as she ran out.

  10.

  Adolé still leaned against the refrigerator in the semi-darkness of the kitchen. How could she not have known that? That Michelle had such a beautiful voice and was obviously also a great talent when it came to composing?

  She was still very emotional and deeply moved by this unexpected talk. If all her pieces were so soulful and beautiful, there was no doubt about the joint success of the CD.

  Adolé was pleasantly surprised. Even outside of work, she felt that something had changed. She noticed that she felt crazy sympathy for this scratchy French woman and shook her head uncomprehendingly at the thought. She knew it would be difficult if she decided to follow this feeling of sympathy and affection, especially since she could not judge how Michelle felt about it. Furthermore, her eternal motto was reasonably - as it was for many others - and also voluntarily: "No love at work! She was willing to stick to it despite all temptations, because she was convinced that this motto made life much easier - not before a liaison, of course, but certainly after. It didn't take much imagination to imagine what would happen if you went to bed with colleagues and that didn't lead to the desired happy ending. When did you ever get anything tangible out of these sentimentalities? She was only too happy to spare herself this scenario, not to mention what would happen to her if the press got even the slightest whiff of something like this.

  No, one thing was for sure, she would not take that risk, especially not when her career was going so well. Moreover, it had now turned out that the initial mad idea Roswitha had come up with at the kitchen table was indeed innovative, different and above all extremely promising. She would not put all that at risk.

  And so she resolutely grabbed the two coffee cups she had freshly filled and made her way back to the recording studio. She didn't let on and listened to the other pieces Michelle had composed with her studio musician. They were all exceptionally beautiful and above all special, not typical or predictable, some with English lyrics, some without. Nevertheless, they all fitted perfectly to the songs Adolé had worked out with her studio colleagues.

  One thing was certain: they were a good team, although they had previously worked exclusively separately. And about something else there was now certainty: with today's comparison session, with which they had compared their individually composed songs for the first time and put them in the balance, their joint album had finally come a decisive step closer.

  *

  After the evening had progressed considerably, they decided to end their working day and arranged to meet the next morning. After all, they still had a whole studio for themselves for days on end - there had to be something useful to do with it.

  They formally said goodbye, shook hands and wished each other a good night. Adolé smiled and offered Michelle to give her a ride in the taxi, but she declined, saying that she wanted to enjoy the summer evening a little longer and so took the opportunity to walk a little more. Adolé therefore wished her a good time and said goodbye formally, while at the same time she noticed that she did not even know in which hotel Michelle was staying here in Hamburg.

  Disturbingly, she even noticed how she regretted not being able to spend a little more time with this impulsive pianist. Sighing, she turned around, entered the main road, which was not very busy at that time, and took the first car at the taxi stand. While she looked at Hamburg at night from the back seat, her thoughts kept wandering back to Michelle. How much she had surprised her with her beautiful voice and this fancy song. Why had she never sung herself in her career before? She knew Michelle Mimieux, like the rest of the world, exclusively as a highly talented, diligent and successful showpiece pianist. However, she had never sung any songs herself, although her numerous concert tours would certainly have provided her with the opportunity to do so.

  Adolé smiled inwardly. Maybe now what she had wished for Michelle all along had come true - she had recognized the potential of this extraordinary opportunity and finally did what she had always wanted to do: the best of it for herself and her career. And she finally sang! What an unexpectedly beautiful turn of events.

  She secretly congratulated Michelle on this courageous and long overdue decision. Without a doubt, she had a very soft, powerful and unique voice. The public would be surprised and fascinated - should they ever hear this voice - that Michelle Mimieux actually had what it takes to be a singer. But probably they would be even more surprised that it had taken so long for this exceptional pianist to take her heart in both hands and to win the world of singing for herself.

  "Wonderful!". It was with this thought that Adolé fell asleep that night.

  11.

  The next day had no comparable surprises in store, but still started promisingly. She had already spent many days in the studio, many of them for nothing. Other days, however, revealed amazing talents, rhythms and remarkable surprises that have accompanied her until today.

  They met in the studio at noon, as agreed, and began, as the day before, to select, perform, evaluate and discuss pieces for the CD. It turned out that they were actually pretty good in time. At least eight of the presented songs were so good that they could easily make it onto the record. Considering the fact that they only needed twelve usable songs, the situation relaxed a lot.

  But what was still missing in Adolé's opinion was a real hit, one that made it into the charts and was suitable to be played in discos all over the country. This was a bit challenging, given their generally more jazz-oriented orientation, which Michelle, although they had never talked about it, apparently found very accommodating, but it was a thoroughly manageable task. Adolé loved such challenges and wanted to prove that especially these unexpected productions could be successful and had their charm. She enjoyed surprising her audience and offering them something fresh.

  So they spent the second real day of their collaboration first defining the framework - text or not and if text, in what language and who would sing it? - in order to then move on to action in terms of content. They were able to quickly agree on a song with lyrics, but not on the language of the lyrics, let alone which of the two
of them would sing it, because of the pleasure of listening and because the piece should fit all sorts of occasions.

  Because of the desired playability in clubs, however, they put this question on hold and initially took care of the basic issue, namely the external rhythmic appearance. Cool grooves and rich beats made dancing at parties a lot easier and so they started to experiment with all kinds of instruments, which nowadays are mostly only generated by computers.

  It was astonishing what could be created without really having to go into the depths of these computer programs, let alone actually mastering instruments. They soon found the right sequence of crisp drum and bass sounds and then concentrated on combining this shell with Michelle's unique piano playing.

  In between, Adolé noticed how Michelle secretly, quietly and silently took a piece of paper and wrote something down on it every now and then. Without comment she folded the piece of paper again and again and put it into one of the back pockets. Then she went back to business as usual and compared it with Adolé, who pretended not to notice the scene, the tone sequences and tried out different hard time signatures.