Laïs "Laïs" 1998****

This is one of few Belgian CD's in my collection, even though I've lived in Belgium for some time. I have a few Flemish pop/rock/indie bands, mostly singing in English, as well as some Walloonic chanson which can easily be mistaken for French, e.g. the most famous Belgian singer Jacques Brel, who is perennially misidentified as French - not unlike that famous literary detective, Monsieur Poirot.  But this is my only piece of "traditional" Belgian music - if one can call it so; Jorunn Bauweraerts, one of the singers (the other two are Annelies Brosens and Nathalie Delcroix), has complained that "traditional singing does not exist in Belgium". Of course this isn't exactly true, but there certainly hasn't been an old and distinctively Belgian music tradition, compared with that of its neighbours. Then again, Belgium is a sort of made-up country - once part of the Frankish kingdom of Lotharingia, then of Burgundy, the Holy Roman Empire of the Habsburgs, and briefly of the United Kingdom of The Netherlands, it only came into existence in 1830 and remains torn by a linguistic and cultural divide. As for its musical history, we know that instruments like the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes were popular there in the Middle Ages, as well as that Burgundy in the Renaissance was the epicenter of a less secular school of singing: polyphonic choirs or small vocal groups which, instead of singing in unison like e.g. in Gregorian chants, would be singing different melodies simultaneously. Of course polyphonic music wasn't a Burgundian invention: it is an ages-old tradition in The Balkans, Africa, and elsewhere, but it found a more scholarly expression in that time and place. Now, this kind of singing is not a tradition that travelled unbroken through time to the modern age, but was rather re-discovered by the girls of Laïs. They formed a vocal trio in a Flemish village and appeared at a few local festivals where they were befriended by Celtic folk band Kadril who encouraged and helped them at the beginning of their career, and who provide the instrumental backing in this CD. As for the origin of the songs, the texts are mostly Medieval Flemish, which the girls found in songbooks but for the most part the original music was lost and had to be written or arranged by the band. Many of them are sung acapella, while the ones with instrumental backing sound similar to folk rock bands like England's Steeleye Span or France's Malicorne. The jovial lead single " 'T Smidje" is probably the best example of the latter style. It remains the band's signature tune and has made them known internationally - apparently it's very popular in Poland and East Europe in general. "De Wanhoop" is a rhythmic song with a lot of percussion (or bodhran?) while opener "De Wijn" and Swedish traditional "Min Morfar" are similarly upbeat. On the other hand, there are some beautiful medieval ballads with discreet acoustic backing: "Isabelle", "Warme Garnars", " 'T Jeugdig Groen", and Scots traditional "Bruidsnacht". The latter is translated to Flemish but we do get some songs in other languages: Besides the Swedish "Min Morfa", there's English on the Sinnead O' Connor cover "In this Heart", French on Brel's "Grand Jacques" (both slow acapella versions) and Italian on a gay (as in "cheerful") traditional song called "Barbagal". Other playful and jovial acapella tunes include " 'T Zoutje", "De Wereld Vergaat" and "7 Steken" - well, the last one is about the seduction and murder of a young girl, so not exactly a happy song despite its frisky tempo. On the whole, this is a beautiful album that is hard to classify as either traditional or popular music. Despite the use of medieval texts, it's no more authentically medieval or Celtic than, say, Loreena McKennitt. But the arrangements, singing, and playing are excellent, so I'd highly recommended it to anyone who likes Celtic or New Age music and isn't put off by the use of Flemish lyrics. P.S. cute packaging detail: a small dice in the CD jewel case, a play on the label's name "Alea" which is Latin for "dice" (as in Caesar's famous quote "alea iacta est")

***** for 't Smidje

**** for De Wijn, Isabelle, De Wanhoop, In this Heart, 't Jeugdig Groen, De Wereld Vergaat, Bruidsnacht, 7 Steken

*** for Barbagal, t Zoutvat, Min Morfar, Warme Garnars, Grand Jacques (Live)