An Pierlé & White Velvet

White Velvet suggests, something beautiful and cold ; something dazzling and underground ; innocence and experience - a cross between Snow White and Nico. White Velvet is also the third album from a very special artist who has successfully thrived in the cultural pop otherworld of Europe, without quite breaking through in the UK or America. There have been hints and moments, such as Time Out enthusing about An Pierle and co-songwriter and producer Koen Gisen's twisted, fragile pop in a strange, black pearl or Q Magazine concluding, huge in Ghent - the world may follow suit. But few fans or writers have made that short trip on the Eurostar to discover Pierle & Gisen performing in front of an orchestra or An sitting on a transparent ball, always moving as she hits the notes on her piano. If they arrived today, they'd find the couple with a band called White Velvet, as their sound continues to grow and mutate, eating up all previous experiments to create something new.The new album started coming together in 2005 as the pair filled their home with recording equipment, string quartets and a whole range of instruments, big and small. Having a piano in the kitchen isnt good for your social life, deadpans Gisen. They also listened to a lot of music, in particular piles of 70s records, George Harrison, Talk Talk, early Roxy Music, Bauhaus, Johnny Cash, Air, Radiohead, French muzak - the list is endless and it all seeped in, from the spaciousness of Air through to the artful twists of Roxy and emotional honesty of Mark Hollis. Theres also a 60s feel in the Mellotron-laced Jupiter, while one of the highlights Tenderness is elegantly old fashioned, a beautifully arranged song that An Pierle confesses she loses herself in completely. The pairs eclectic tastes also allow for simplicity - the wonderful Many Roads - and intensity, as demonstrated by the out of control lurch and tumble of Not The End. Pop hooks are cast throughout, from Jupiters chorus to the playful Mexico but just as important are the subtle things happening in the margins of the songs, creating an album that reveals new ideas and textures with every listen.As a teenager, Belgium-born An Pierle first broke through in her home country back in the mid 1990s when she performed in a national song contest, stealing the show with her own compositions and an inspired cover of Tubeway Armys Are Friends Electric? Theres a fantastic recording of the night where you can hear the crowd becoming increasingly excited with every note as the song builds from a few quiet piano strikes into a Helter Skelter-like frenzy. Although piano based, her 1999 debut album Mud Stories is closer in spirit to the likes of Devendra Banhart or Coco Rosie than Kate Bush or Tori Amos. Arguably one of the most experimental song-based piano albums of all time, its essentially a series of live takes of her own material and there are almost no overdubs.Although Koen Gisen played a vital role on Mud Stories in getting the best out of Pierles performances and helping her to select the final tapes, he was even more involved as a co-songwriter & producer on the follow-up, 2002s Helium Sunset. Guitar driven indie-pop songs such as Sing Song Sally lie alongside the brooding Kiss Me and stark As Sudden Tears Fall. The ghosts of Eno and Nick Cave can be glimpsed in Helium Sunset but it remains a unique assemblage that is both alluring and oddly sinister.The broadening canvas of Pierles second album - guitars, synthesizers and even a breathless accordion - also offered new possibilities live as the solo pianist integrated herself into band-driven dynamics and at times a full orchestra. After three years, this presented a new challenge - how to bring all these elements together into a cohesive whole on the next recordings.The result is White Velvet, a combination of everything Pierle and Gisen have experienced and absorbed so far, but blended into a distinctive style. It has both the energy of Mud Stories and the dark, twisted sophistication of Helium Sunset, while pushing forward with more rhythm and harmonies - in short, the sound of a new band. The textures have greater depth partly thanks to Jon Kelly's mix (previous credits include Kate Bush and Paul McCartney) and lyrically too, its the best of Pierle's career so far, full of inventive imagery and also humour: If I save your neck, its to break your back (I Love You). An Pierle laughs as she describes Its Got To Be Me as her Gwen Stefani song . . . Its very ironical. Its that thing, why not me? Why isnt it my time now? Sugary and bizarre, the likes of Its Got To Be Me and Mexico reveal Pierle and Gisen's love of pop, yet the albums potency also lives inside the slow motion atmospherics of Cold Winter and Tenderness or the guttural, sonorous attack of Not The End. As Pierle says, a friend told me, its Radiohead for girls. I dont exactly agree but I think I know what she means.