Lies Van der Aa + Aure / 4AD

Liesa Van der Aa Uniek sound universe that oscillates between jazz, pop, electronics, and classical. Composer, musician, singer, actress, or to put it briefly: Belgian top talent. Liesa Van der Aa is an artistic all-rounder with an impressive discography to her name. Her second record ‘WOTH’ from 2014 is one that still stays with us, a musical triptych inspired by the death ceremonies from ancient Egyptian culture. Now she comes with a new album titled ‘Caramel’. The ‘younger, softer sister’ of her previous record ‘Easy Alice’ (2020) still moves in the same jazzy universe. Although. To name a few references: you hear echoes of Laurie Anderson, this time intertwined with the early classics of James Blake and shreds of Billie Eilish and FKA Twigs. Electronics, contemporary classical, baroque, jazz, and hip-hop – Caramel wears, as Van der Aa herself likes to describe it, all these coats at the same time, casually over each other. And on top of that, more than ever before, the masks fall. “I wanted to make a record that feels like you hear someone thinking out loud,” she says. “As if you are on the tip of someone's consciousness, without everything already being spoken out.” Liesa cut, pasted, played with loops like in hip-hop, and thus built a sound universe that oscillates between jazz and pop, between melancholy and contemporary freshness. The production happened in close collaboration with Niels Broos, with contributions from, among others, actress Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall) and singer Judith Okon. Influences? Van Nina Simone to Laurie Anderson, from Billie Eilish to James Blake. But above all: Liesa’s own, uncompromising signature. Instagram | Site | Live at Ayco Aure (fr) Intimate, minimalist, and multilingual folk. Some people have an excess of talent. Aure is such a person. Besides a career as an architect, she also ventured into singer-songwriting, and she also reaches high peaks there. Her debut EP ‘A Few Notes’ (2023) received a lot of praise and brought her to stages throughout Europe as support for Andy Shauf and Tom McRae. This autumn she comes to present her brand new debut record ‘printemps’, which will be released on Mayway Records. A record of thresholds, written in the intermediate space in which one chapter ends and another begins. Inspired by the poetic minimalism of artists like Atahualpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, and Leonard Cohen, mixed with the mysterious chiaroscuro of Lhasa, Jessica Pratt, and Nico. She weaves languages and traditions into a universe that feels both fragile and accurate. Instagram | Bandcamp | Focus Knack: \"Aure writes songs to seek out the silence\"