Altar ego: An Pierlé album draws on church organ for new sound
Ghent-based singer An Pierlé on her sixth album, branching out into soundtracks and not discussing music at home
Pop in the pulpit
Although she’s taking “loads of vile medicines,” she still opened her home to Flanders Today. She feels the urge to talk about her new album, Arches, and she does it with gusto, in a voice that make Tom Waits sound like a choirboy.
Antwerp-born Pierlé, who turned 41 in December, came to prominence when she made it to the final of Humo’s Rock Rally in 1996. She didn’t win – the jury had very conflicting opinions about her – but she was certainly the most talked-about contestant. Even if people talked more about her playing seated on a ball than about her beautiful voice and eccentric piano playing.
She’s been a mainstay of music in Flanders since her debut, Mud Stories, three years after that. Album number six, Arches, is quite a feat. It wasn’t recorded at La Patrie, the studio in her home that she shares with her partner – in life and music – Koen Gisen, a well-respected record producer and mixer. Instead it was recorded in Ghent’s Sint-Jacobs church, because she wanted to incorporate the church’s organ.
“Four years ago, I was named the city’s composer. It was an opportunity to get off the beaten track and experiment,” she recalls. “One of my projects then incorporated the organ at Sint-Jacobs.”
A holy union
Afterwards she even did a small tour of churches, but Arches is the first album on which she’s used the church organ in new songs. And yep, they still sound like pop tunes.
Though Pierlé is a pianist, she doesn’t play the organ herself: “You need to be an octopus to do that. I have the feeling you need at least eight arms and four feet.”
We might have a flaming row in the studio, but once we finish working and are back home, it’s forgotten
They recorded everything in the middle of the night. “It’s a different atmosphere, with weird creaking noises, a bit spooky even,” she says. “We had no choice, though, as there’s too much noise any other time. But it was no problem. They gave me the keys to the church.”
In the song “There Is No Time” Pierlé sings: “We’re an example of opposites attract”. Is she singing about herself and Gisen?
“I suppose. But I almost never refer literally to our relationship,” she says. “That would be boring. My lyrics are always a mix between very personal stuff and inspiration I get from things I see around me, or that I read or hear.” She giggles, or at least tries to: “‘Opposites Attract’ is the title of a Paula Abdul song.”
You might think that in the Pierlé-Gisen household music is a much-discussed topic, but in fact, they avoid it. “Outside the professional realm, we don’t talk much about music,” she says. “We might have had a flaming row in the studio, but once we finish working and are back home, it’s forgotten. I think this is a consequence of first having been best friends, becoming a couple afterwards and only after that starting to make music together.”
Last year, Pierlé recorded the soundtrack of Le tout nouveau testament (The Brand New Testament) by the Brussels director Jaco Van Dormael, a film that won multiple awards around the world and was nominated for a Golden Globe.
Big shoes to fill
“I met him once at a film festival in Rennes, but that was it,” she says. “And one day he phoned me and asked me out of the blue if I wanted to make the music for his new film.” It surprised her, since she’d never worked on a soundtrack before.
“I loved the idea but I had big shoes to fill.” She’s referring to Van Dormael’s brother Pierre, who died eight years ago. He was a respected composer and jazz guitarist, who wrote the music for all his brother’s films.
If the director rejected something I really loved, I quietly reused it for another scene
“But Jaco was the first to put my mind at rest. At that point, I was preparing a new album, but I put it aside; this was an opportunity I wanted to grab.”
First impressions are important, Pierlé points out. “The first time I read the screenplay, I had my computer at hand to record every fresh idea I had. Some of those musical themes I effectively used in the end. Jaco had this idea of wanting very melodic piano music, but we soon realised that wouldn’t be enough. In the end, the music was much more arranged.”
She got into a rhythm of working on the soundtrack that found her sending Van Dormael the music daily. For the first time in her career she couldn’t do whatever she wanted. She had to follow the director. “I liked it!” she insists. “If he rejected something I really loved, I quietly reused it for another scene.”
She laughs and for a few seconds I worry she will choke. “I shouldn’t laugh, it’s bad for me these days,” she says with a wink.
Pierlé originally studied acting, and by working on Le tout nouveau testament she feels she’s finally had a use for that training. “Jaco pointed out to me that I’m able to read and understand a screenplay emotionally. I didn’t realise it was something special, but apparently it’s not that common,” she says.
It was her first experience as a soundtrack composer, and, if it’s up to her, it won’t be her last. “We needed a lot of romantic and funny music for the film. I wouldn't mind doing something completely different: a dark, brooding score.”
Photo: Kaat Pype
More new music this month
Stefaan Tubex
Songs for the Bookshelf • Self-release
Singer-songwriter Stefaan Tubex debuts with this special project, a CD with a book. In the latter you find the lyrics, Dutch translations (or rather interpretations), chord schemes and musings. But it’s the music that convinces the most: 10 folky songs with a chamber music feel, marinated in melancholy. It doesn't come as a surprise to learn that Tubex convinced John Wood, collaborator of the late British musician Nick Drake, to mix this album, since his music is in the same vein as Drake’s. Wood must also have been impressed by this set of songs. Paraphrasing one of the titles, Tubex sounds like a man singing to forget what should not be forgotten. ****
Sioen
Too Good to Be True (2001-2016) • Kabron
From his debut single, “Cruisin’”, to last year’s “Pharaoh”, this compilation gives a good overview of the 15-year career of (Frederik) Sioen, the Ghent musician and singer whose piano-infused songs, be they ballads or more up-tempo tunes, always glow with an unmistakable pop sensibility. When I interviewed him about his first album, he told me his motto was “Go with the flow and don’t forget to enjoy it”. This record gives the impression that’s exactly what’s he’s done for the past 15 years. And he’s improved his English: He’s no longer singing holy day when he means holiday. ***
