Mme. Pierlé

The first time I heard Luka Bloom play live the support act was an unusual Belgian girl called An Pierlé. She was a woman of contradictions from the start. When she walked on stage and talked she sounded like a very shy, very young girl. Her Flemish accent contributed much to this image, as did her appearance. She was blond, quite small and wearing a little black dress. She sat at the piano on her ergonomic ball, which made her "the girl with the skippy ball". But when she started playing suddenly there was all this power and energy, all this emotion and creativity. I first heard her play in Utrecht and Amsterdam in 1999, and then a couple of more times on Luka's next tour. From the first time I heard her there were songs that stuck in my mind. The urgency of "Nebraska", the gentle "Mud Stories" and the unusual lyrics of "God in a Cage". Then there was this staccato song called "Hi". It was always the music and the lyrics that stuck, even after hearing a song only once it would keep coming back into my mind.

At first I wasn't sure what to think of her music. It was genuine and original, it struck a chord, but it seemed to sound almost mechanical, and I needed time to get used to it. I considered buying her cd at the time, but didn't. Then a few years later I came across it again in a record shop and I did buy it. I listened to it, and I still had this ambivalent feeling about the music. Then after a while my partner listened to it a little more, and then I got him her second cd, "Helium Sunset". Different from the first, but with such wonderful music and lyrics, a little gentler maybe with different arrangements. She wasn't just a girl at the piano anymore. Then on "Live Jet Set" the same songs came back, but fully orchestrated, and very beautiful.

So then she came to play at a festival in the Dom Church in Utrecht. After a classical and a jazz piece it was her turn finally. She started off very well that time, by asking the audience for complete silence. She had lost her handbag, and rang her own mobile phone to try and locate it. It was found hiding under one of the seats, and she could retrieve it. This really broke the ice that night. She sang beautifully in this church, and I heard new songs again, as well as some of the songs I had just discovered on "Helium Sunset".



Then I heard her at other concerts, both here and in Belgium, and she kept amazing me. There was a great concert in the open air at the Rivierenhof in Antwerp where the fountains were made to dance along to "Sing Song Sally". Concerts in De Melkweg and Tivoli here in the Netherlands and an appearance at a literary festival in Rotterdam. She always manages to move from these small, gentle and moving songs, to great outbursts of energy and power, from sitting quietly on the edge of the stage to jumping about all over that stage.

I once, sort of by accident, attended a rehearsal of An with White Velvet and some guest musicians in Brussels. I sat there in an empty concert hall while they were going through some of the songs, and that impressed me very much. She's a professional, a perfectionist, and she could hear absolutely everything, all the instruments, every string. She knew exactly what she wanted and how to get to where she wanted to be. The concert that evening was very special.

She was one of the performers at the "Night of the Love Song" in Paradiso last year, the only time I heard her sing in Dutch. A special performance and an unusual song, very cheerful and with a children's choir, but ambiguous as well. She showed her usual great energy and zest for life there and provided a good, joyful and energetic end to the evening's entertainment. You could see even the most grumpy of Dutch poets with a smile on his face.



This weekend I went to see her in Antwerp, the town where she grew up. She played a big club, but it wasn't too crowded and there was a very relaxed atmosphere. She seemed a little tired, but that didn't stop her from giving all she could. She can play very energetically, jumping and dancing round on stage, and also play very gently and with great tenderness. She wrote a song about the death of her grandfather which is very moving. And she still sings "Mud Stories" which never fails to move me. This was the first time I had heard her sing "Anytime You Leave" live. It's a wonderful song about a woman's revenge on the man leaving her. She is very creative and, in this song, as in some others, full of mischief.

When she plays now you see that same passion that was there during those first performances. There is even more energy there now because she moves away from her piano more. When she dances on stage you can see the music and the passion reach her toes, so to speak.



When I hear An's songs in my head there are certain lines and lyrics that keep coming back, they are poetic phrases, but they have the greatest impact if you hear her voice singing them. She wrote a song about Siamese twins that has a haunting line in it:

"Siamese twins are separated
They couldn’t stand themselves no more"

And she can put feelings into words in the most moving and beautiful ways, for example about the death of her grandfather in "Closing Time":

"And now I'm lost and overruled
My eyes sore and
As time was closing in on you
Fear stroking"

And another wonderful image from "Nobody's Fault":
"I guess I’ve always been a dreamer
With a dirty mind"

Then there is "How Does It Feel":

"Anything lost
Anything broken I'll share the cost
But I wonder how does it feel"

"Promise you will never stop wondering
How does it feel"

I could go on like this for a while, but if I had to pick one song just for the lyrics it would be:

Sorry

Say you will
Don’t be shy
I’ll ask nothing
But your time
In return
I’m concerned

I’m so sorry
I can’t do this much better
In front of you
Though I try
I hurt you

By the strange things I never can tell
‘Cause I’ve got them all covered so well
You can’t name them nor solve them
Without getting involved

I’m surprised
Never thought
I’d be shy
Always joke
Always smile
Showing off

I’m a jester
I’m not nice
I’m flirtatious
Made of ice
But I’m scared
Deep inside

Still the same things we never can tell
‘Cause we’ve all got them covered so well
You can’t name them nor solve them
Cause you're getting involved

Hahahahaa
Hahahahaa

No I’m serious
Though I try
It’s my search for
The things I hide from myself
Stupid me



Living Day to Day - weblog on An
An's official website
An's Myspace