LAÏS

Group of three young girls from Kalmthout who became one of the most visible exponents of a Flemish folk-revival in 1998-1999.

The initial spark for the group was given during a folk-workshop in Gooik, where Jorunn - raised in a folkminded family - Annelies - studying classical singing - and friend Soetkin brought an acappela version of the traditional Italian song "Barbagal". The cheers from those present & the pat on the back from people from the group Kadril made the girls (later with Nathalie) to begin a group.

In 1996 the trio had a place on the Dranouter folk festival, a first high point in their career, because in the backstage there was a certain Emmylou Harris who stood there listening in awe. Her friendly note "To the three angelvoices. Also enjoyed meeting you and hearing you sing - a lovely surprise. Wish you all the best and hope our paths cross again. Stay true to the music in your heart", was a reference they liked to exploit later.

After a few experiments with a number of musicians, the group felt ready for the big time after a tour with Kadril : a cd-recording. On this title-less debut, there were mostly old-Dutch lyrics on selfwritten melodies, but also a danceable single ('t Smidje) and some surprising covers ("In this heart" of Sinéad O'Connor and "Grand Jacques" of the great Jacques Brel - a song that also appeared on the tribute-album "Brel op 1").

From the very beginning, they did receive very favorable press reviews. Almost without an exception the reviewers were very enthusiastic about the fresh sound & looks of the group. Take for instance this text from "De Morgen" : "They look more playful, more natural, more attractive than the Spice Girls. And younger too. And they can sing. If they open their little mouths a capella, there are nothing but heavenly sounds coming from them. They even form the most beautiful trio that has ever stood on the Flemish folkscene, but perhaps that last thing is not such a great accomplishment, taken into account the "may '68"-image that was so typical for the traditional music-scene". In the slipstream of the press, the audience followed : from the album over 12,000 copies were sold, an astounding amount for that usually very small scene. The concerts of the group also reached full capacity in the months that followed.

At the same time as Laïs, there were a number of other young folk groups emerging on the scene (Fluxus, Ambrozijn ...), forming sort of a "scene" around the label "Wild Boar Music" of Kadril's Erwin Libbrecht. The members of these groups also performed together under the name "Bouquet Garni". It's probably the looks of these "mylady's", the very accessible yet unrepresentative single "Het Smidje" and their more commercial attitude that explain why Laïs managed to gather 5 times the attention and record sales of their contemporaries.

Later in 1999 the climax was their gig at the folkfestival of Dranouter, where they performed with their own backing band for the first time. The debut-cd kept on selling well the whole year and attained "gold" status. It resided in the top 50 of best-selling albums for an entire year (over 50,000 copies were sold), and also gave the band some momentum to go abroad: in 1999, the band opened on a number of occasions for Sting in France, and this led them to selling 7,000 copies of their mostly Flemish album even there.
The girls also recorded a duet with Johan Verminnen "De Zomer" op, a duet on his cd "Vroeger en Later", provided the voices on some tracks of the Wallonian folk band Coïncidence, and recorded a track on the soundtrack of the film "Verdwenen Straat" (about writer Louis-Paul Boon, they can be heard on the "De Ballade van Boon" which was written by Frank - de Mens - Vander Linden).

For the second album, which they recorded in 2000 and released in November of that year, Laïs had assembled a new band: leader of this new backing band (and producer of the album) was the boyfriend of Jorunn, Fritz Sundermann - guitarist with a rich past in Belgian music, eg. in California Sunshine, Elisa Waut, Isabelle Antena, dirk Blanchart... - aided by Bart Denolf on bass, Hans Quaegebuer on hurdy-gurdy and Ronny Reuman on drums. Despite this backing band, the album was still very much centred on the vocals of the three leading ladies. Fritz about this in De Standaard "Het is niet omdat we live wat harder gingen spelen, dat we zo'n sound ook op plaat wilden. We wilden geen breuk met hun goeie debuutplaat, veeleer een logisch vervolg erop. Want hun grote, formidabele troef zijn hun drie stemmen. .. De drie meisjes samen één instrument. Ik ben de katalysator die hun gedachten muzikaal vertaalt. Ze vinden een arrangement voor drie stemmen en noemen dat een nummer. Vaak zit dat onregelmatig in elkaar. Voor ons komt het er op aan daar een harmonische onderbouw bij te vinden. Maar het moet goed aanvoelen. We sluiten nooit compromissen. Although the album contained no track that stood out so much as a single as "Het Smidje" had done on the first one, "Dorothea" managed to become almost as succesful as the debut. Singles were the catchy rape-song "(Houdt uw) Kanneke (proper Dianneke)" and the title-track about a virgin "Dorothea".

In 2001, the band kept on touring intensively (playing for the second time in the Marquee of Rock Werchter, which led them to the memorable quote "Welcome to Folk Werchter!"). In the fall, they even played a few acoustic gigs in China, while they haven't given up on the effort to also conquer France (for this, they recorded a reggae and a-capella version of "Le Grand Vent", together with the writer of that song Gabriel Yacoub).

Band members:
- Jorunn Bauweraerts
- Nathalie Delcroix
- Annelies Brosens

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- Laïs(Alea, Wild Boar Music, 1998)
- Dorothea (Virgin, 2000)

Websites :
- Lais.be, the official site which grew from "the world of Laïs" from fan n° 1, Marcel Thyskens
- my review of their debut-cd, and of "Dorothea"
- Erwin Libbrechts official Laïs-pages.
- The luminous Life of Laïs, article in Folkworld
- Marider, Dutch fanpage
- Laïs in lingerie, on photo by Filip Naudts
- interview with Jorunn in oct. 2001 at Goddeau
- Lyrics of Laïs at Waltertje's Lyrics site
- Lots of live-pictures on the fansite of Nele Geerts