KADRIL

Kadril is a folkband that has the merit of being the first in Flanders that succeeded in blending the traditional music with elements of rock music.

The group began, heavily influenced by Rum & het Kliekske and co, its existence in 1976, and was founded by Erwin, Peter & Harlind Libbrecht (all sons of professor Libbrecht, tutoring in classical Chinese and one of the founders of the philosophical school of Antwerp) who had discovered folk from the world of "kleinkunst". Initially, the band built a acoustic repertoire filled with traditional dances such as bourrées, jigs and - nomen est omen- quadrilles, and made its debut onto record with an LP "Kadril" in 1986.

Slowly, the group evolved to a sound that was a bit more raw. Erwin Libbrecht about this much later: "As a traditional folkmusic band, we wouldn't have been able to survive. At the end of the eighties we started, in fact as a sort of joke that went out of control, to incorporate some elements of rock in to our music. That happened at the time that music was totally 'out'. There wasn't a single folkgroup which made the lineup of the festival, not one single big podium. Until we had a small radio-hit with "Heerke van Maldegem". And suddenly we could play at the Gentse Feesten again."

The group got inspiration from old songbooks and collections of medieval songs (Florimont van Duysse, Hoffman Von Falderleben, Jan-frans Willems, De Coussemacker, het Antwerps Liedboek or Gruuthuuse, material dating back to the 15th century), but unlike the "purists" in the genre was not trying to "restore" or "conserve" that material, but to start working with it.

On the second CD "De Vogel in de Muite" (the bird in the cage), there were already a few songs going in the direction of folkrock, but in the meantime the group had also met and enrolled Patrick Riguelle (known from working with Brendan Croker, later with Jan Hautekiet as Riguelle & Hautekiet or in projects such as Zakformaat XL or The Laatste Show Band). This cooperation proved to be a lucky one, and opened the way to bigger audiences. "heerke van Maldegem" became a modest radio-hit. And the CD "Nooit meer krijt" (never with chalk) of 1994 became a truly memorable one, the first full-fledged folkrock CD in Flanders, produced by Werner Pensaert (the house-producer of The Scabs). This even got the band a review in Humo, and a favorable by (md) on top of that.

In 1996 the live CD "De groote boodschap" (the big message) was released, again in in a co-production with the Flemish radio-station Radio 1 as was the predecessor "Nooit met Krijt", and contained, among other things, a cover of the song "Feest" of the Dutch rockband The Scene.

In 1997 however, Patrick Riguelle decided to part ways with Kadril. Peter Libbrecht wrote the song "Van Boord" (disembark), "Leave the ship my good friend, after so many long years. But don't be shocked to see, the ship will continue to sail" are some of the lyrics. Written as he said a mere 10 minutes after the telephone call of Riguelle, this was "part a salute, but part a message to say that people needn't think that Kadril would be out without him, as many though at the time. Our audience even had mixed feelings about Patrick : half of it thought he was brilliant, while the other half was annoyed by his attitude of a rocker".

In his place the young female singer Eva De Roovere was found (she already has a little bit of fame as a "cabaretière", winning the Dutch "Leids Cabaret Festival" with Colette Notenboom). The choice for Eva was certainly a big contrast with the raw voice of Riguelle, but that was a contrast they were aware of : "in the auditions, there were a number of very good voices. In the end we opted for the female vocals, to make the difference with our previous singer. When we would've chosen a male voice there would've been too many comparisons, and we were fearing those". For about a year they worked together to adapt some of the old material to the new voice and write a new repertoire, but in the end the group was so happy about the new sound they entitled the cd "Eva".

The cd was a production by Werner Pensaert again, and was testimony of a band that had gone through quite a metamorphosis again, blending a "backbeat" of bagpipes & dulcimer with melodies ranging from sweet and cozy to jumpy. Despite the enormous interest inland folk music (pulled by the huge success of the female band Laïs, who recorded "het Smidje" with Kadril) and the - for the folk world - expensive production, "Eva" didn't gather all the attention that could be expected (although it sold more than any other Kadril-album, at over 7,000 copies). The high hopes were aired at the press release "Laïs has initially taken advantage of our "celebrity" by touring with us. In turn, the girls have aroused interest for folk music in a lot of people. And now we hope to reap the benefits of that again." They are able to put this all into perspective : "we have also tried to be innovators of folk music. When Patrick joined us, we started to make folk-rock. And now, with Eva, we still do folk, but it is also very much '90's-music. We use samples and beats. Record firms have already asked us if we couldn't bring the band down to five people. We now are nine - including violin, bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy - and this is of course commercially less viable. But money has never mattered to us very much."

The 25-year jubilee of the band was celebrated in 2001 with a number of festivities. This included a "Best of Kadril" and a number of concerts with both Eva & Patrick Riguelle singing (such as on the folk festival in Dranouter). This "All The Best" eventually became a double CD, spanning the entire career of the band, with many unreleased songs, re-recorded versions of older songs, and all the best stuff they put out. Among the five new songs, things such as "Voici La Saint Jean" (by Kadril with Malicorne) and a cover of Richard Thompson's "I Still Dream".In the press-release for the album, the band compared the 25years of their existance to one big party, in the words of Patrick Riguelle as "Kadril is a school trip without the teachers".

As Laïs had assembled a backing band of their own by this time, Kadril also started coöperating with a new female groups : the Brussels-based Galician sextet Ialma.

Band members (current line-up in bold) :
- Patrick Riguelle: vocals, bodhran, acc. gitaar
- Eva De Roovere: vocals, violin, clarinet
- Hans Guaghebeur: draailier, accordeon, fijfer, keyboards
- Peter Libbrecht: violin, vocals
- Harlind Libbrecht: mandolin, dulcimer, vocals
- Erwin Libbrecht: acc. guitar, vocals
- Dirk Verhegge: el. guitars
- Bart De Cock: bagpipes, keyboards
- Mario Vermandel: el. bass, upright bass
- Willy Seeuws / Philippe Mobers: drums
- Koen De Waele : el. bass
- Wim Coessens : upright bass

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Kadril (LP, eigen beheer, 1986 - in 1998 op CD via Wild Boar)
- De Vogel in de muite (CD, Dureco, 1990)
- Nooit met krijt (CD, Dureco, 1994)
- De Groote Boodschap (Live-CD, Dureco/Radio 1, 1996)
- Eva (CD, Alea / Wild Boar Music, 1999)
- All The Best (2CD, Alea/Wild Boar, 2001)

Websites :
- Official site of the band at Wild Boar Music
- Kadril in the New Folk Tribune with a lot of typed out interviews
- Abandoned Kadril-site by Dag Wieers