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Lais
Lais (Wild Boar Music, Belgium)
$17.99

Three female vocalists from Belgium, Jorunn Bauweraerts, Annelies Brosens and Nathalie Delcroix, lightly accompanied by a small ensemble, present a wideranging view of European folk music that starts with Flemish folk and then expands to Scotland, Sweden, Italy and Ireland.

Listen:
De wijn
Barbagal
Isabel

"Most of the songs are traditional Flemish (in Flemish language), completed by a traditional Italian and a trad Swedish song, a French song of Jacques Brel, an English song composed by Sinead O'Connor and finally a Scottish ballad translated into Flemish. ... the backing sounds sometimes traditional with emphasis on the voices, sometimes there is a howling powerful folk rocky sound - all suiting very well to the three outstanding voices. ... an extremely promising CD that leaves you thinking about the secrets of these girls from Belgium..." - Christian Moll, Folkworld.de

A Biography:
Biography Two years after their widely noticed appearance at the Dranouter Folk Festival Laïs finished their first CD. There are fourteen traditional songs with contemporary arrangements on this untitled début. Laïs stands for "voice" and also refers to the medieval "laïs", erotic minstrel songs. But Laïs are foremost three young women from Kalmthout who fell in love with folk music: Jorunn Bauweraerts, Annelies Brosens and Nathalie Delcroix.

The past...
They've known each other since childhood, but Laïs itself was born in the summer of 1994, when Jorunn and Annelies did the Barbagal song on the last morning of the Gooik Folk Training Days. "Everyone became quiet as a mouse," remembers Jorunn. After we'd finished a member of the folk band Kadril told us to keep going." At that time music was already a blooming passion. Jorunn comes from a musical family - her father is a renowned bagpiper - and Annelies started as a classical singer at an early age.

Dranouter 1996 Laïs, backed by folk band Kadril, made quite an impressive entrance on the Dranouter Folk Festival stage. Their singing opened up the audience's sleepy ears and then sent them into raptures. Even Emmylou Harris praised their harmonious part-singing and mentioned something about "angelic voices". But they did not lose their heads over this unexpected massive response. "There we felt for the first time what we wanted to do with our lives," says Jorunn. "But we were still very young. We had to be level-headed and were not quite ready to record an album." Laïs embarked on a quest for the right format to bring their music and then went together with Kadril on an extensive tour of Flanders' cultural centres.They did concerts together with Clannad, Värttinä and Emmylou Harris.

South Africa Early in 1998 the three-piece was given a warm reception at the Klein Karoo Festival in Oudtshoorn, South Africa. After that they started recording their début album. Laïs chose to sing some songs a cappella, while they were accompanied by musicians on other tracks.

First CD The CD contains three idiosyncratic cover versions (of songs by Cantovivo, Sinead O'Connor and Jacques Brel), as well as quite some traditional lyrics set to new melodies and arrangements. The repertoire links up with musical traditions in Scotland, Sweden, Italy, Flanders and Ireland. Laïs, in true Belgian fashion, takes a broad view of things. "Old lyrics are actually quite usable," thinks Annelies. "An entire world is hidden behind those words and it's so good to know that a long time ago people were working with the same words. That's our goal: to make old music live on."

Influences
A wealth of influences is gathered in Laïs. Jorunn is mainly into male voices from folk music and blues and is an ardent admirer of black female singers. Due to her training Annelies is more classically inspired. She also likes Loreena McKennitt and Värttinä. Nathalie swears by female singers whose personalities enable them to tackle different styles. Like Sinead O'Connor and black female singers in general. Together they are Laïs. Ready for Flanders and the rest of the world. The first single taken from their CD is 't Smidje (The Blacksmith), a tune written by dancing to its traditional lyrics.

They recently supported Luka Bloom in a sold out Ancienne Belgique and opened the I Muvrini-concert in Forest National for an audience of 4.000 people. They are cherished by the folk audience in their home country. Self-convinced, they now want to step beyond the borders of both the folk scene and Belgium.