In Norse mythology, Ygdrasil is the tree of life. Ygdrasil's branches
covered the whole known world and supported the universe. Ygdrasil had three
roots going to each of the three levels of the world. Ygdrasil was a mighty
ash tree that held the world together. Ygdrassil are Linde Nijland and
Annemarieke Coenders. They are a pair of singers who conjure a magical world
when they sing. When I saw them perform at De Broke Ground as part of the
Access 2 Amsterdam festival, I was transported to another dimension. When
they took the stage, they stood facing each other. Then they began to sing a
Bulgarian folk song without accompaniment. The two women's voices blended in
something more that just harmony singing. The intensity of their voices felt
like a physical thing filling the room with. The duo sang with spare guitar
accompaniment with clear, pure voices. Voices that create new worlds for
those who hear them
Annemarieke and Linde began singing together in 1991. After competing in
various music contests around the Netherlands, they were signed by VIA who
put out Ygdrassil (1995) and Pieces (1997). Linde released Visman, a Dutch
language solo disc in 1998 while Annemarieke was finishing up her art
studies. While recording We Visit Many Places, their label went bankrupt
leaving the band to press on by themselves. We Visit Many Places came out on
their own Real Harm label in 2000 and their fourth disc, Nice Days Under
Darkest Skies came out in February of 2002. But that's getting ahead of the
story.
After their performance at De Broke Ground, I asked Ygdrassil for an
impromptu interview. I was allowed to tag along as Max Ohlenschager from Radio
Netherlands interviewing the band for his radio show and then had a chance
to ask a few questions of my own
"We do harmony singing," Annemarieke told us when asked to describe the
music of Ygdrassil. "It's mostly close harmony, but in a way that both of
our voices are equally important. We also sing our own songs and we
experiment a lot using our voices as instruments. Our way of arranging songs
in very intuitive. When you hear the third voice, it's about our voices
fitting together very well. The intensity with which we sing brings that
about."
Ygdrassil have a very unique sound. It is clearly grounded in folk styles,
but there is something going on that transcends easy classification. When
asked, Annemarieke described their influences as "a bit of folk and pop and
also influences like the way Bulgarian women sing. We both really like Joni
Mitchell, but also I'm influenced by bands like Sonic Youth."
"I'm more into folk," Linde continues. "I really look up to Sandy Denny.
Nick Drake, Neil Young and Bob Dylan."
When Ygdrassil perform, there is an emotional rawness that is hard to
describe. The two singers stand exposed, technologically naked with only the
bare minimum of electronic enhancement. Only microphones and pick-ups
mediate their sound, and sometimes even those are abandoned. The most
powerful moment in their Amsterdam show came when the women put down their
guitars, stepped away from their microphones, faced each other and filled
the ancient theater with two voices sounding like a choir.
The group's sound is powerful but hard to categorize, pigeonhole or market.
When we asked about their unique performance style, Linde commented, "In a
way, it's our strength. We don't do any show around it, we just sing. Some
people like the way we look, the way we sing."
"It's about communicating," Annemarieke continues addressing the way they
often sing looking at each other instead of the audience. "It's also about
improvisation. It's about responding in the moment that things are
happening. It's also about constantly tuning into each other. It's about
enjoying what we're doing too. Sometimes people forget that, but it's very
important. We're not robots!"
As wonderful as their music is, Ygdrassil still have to deal with the
fundamentals of music as a business. "It was very nice," Annemarieke says of
their time on VIA. "They gave us the chance to make CD's and they let us do
very nice packaging. At the moment, we release everything independently;
we're doing things ourselves. It's good because now we're the boss."
"We have a distributor, which helps," Linde continues. "It is difficult to
get the right amount of media attention. Some people only know of our first
CD. They really like us, but they don't even know that there is a second or
third and that there will be a fourth. It's not that we're ignored. We get
very good reviews in the press. We're just stuck in the lower end of the
music world."
"We have to work to not get stuck," Annemarieke concludes.
Linde sums up their situation saying, "Our problem is that we don't fit
anywhere, so we fit everywhere."
Ygdrassil CD's are available from www.bol.com.
