neeka (female, musician) is one of the happiest people in the world. After ten years of learning and adjusting Ilse Goovaerts is pursuing the perfect course. Women Wonderland is the right album at the right moment. Eleven songs that raise her far above her influences and that exposes an authentic musical style. An artist polished so logically and so purely that you can only feel good and/or in awe. Conclusion: neeka has become even better.
Thats how she had it in her head. And for quite some time now. It definitely had to sound modern. But she wanted to get part of the sounds out of historic instruments. Preferably from baroque instruments because they have a softer sound than contemporary classical instruments. That fascination originates in her schooling. Ilse Goovaerts has been immersed in the magic of the church organ since she was eight years old. Its kind of a prehistoric synthesizer with which you can generate a lot of sounds. Of course there is the massiveness of such an organ; the pumping and pushing of that immense music machine. But you can also extract very soft and subtle things from it.
So that organ definitely had to be on the album. Women Wonderland also employs: clavichord, harpsichord, lute guitar, pianoforte, theorbe (bass lute) and a virginal (a type of harpsichord that sounds warmer and deeper and that was played by ladies of position). Actually she dreamed about bringing all those old instruments together in the same place. Unity of time and place as reaction to todays editing culture. But that wasnt practically feasible.
Then youve got to drag around monuments. So we recorded in the homes of collectors and instrument builders. You instantly get a different perspective of time. You leave everyday life and start thinking about why an instrument is played the same way for 300 years and that suddenly changes.
Her companion in the time machine is Luc Van Acker. In the meantime, those who only know the experimental side of the man from Tienen have already fallen off their chairs in amazement. Long ago Van Acker was the first one to react to neekas first demo. Didnt he prove with Zanna that he is capable of exceptional things with female voices? Furthermore, he is a Belgian with international experience that thinks internationally. In short, someone that you can take along to a dissertation of the Belgian great master Jos van Immerseel about the pianoforte. I was quickly able to make Luc understand what I meant with intensity and expansion with a powerful album. For me that has nothing to do with volume but with a certain type of energy, with a way of playing.
neeka is a singer-songwriter. That means that per definition she draws her inspiration from her own environment. Women Wonderland is actually Ilse Goovaerts 2002-2005 and those were very special pages in her journal. She became a mother and she loves talking about that. It is so overwhelming; it is so inspiring. Very few albums have been made about becoming a mother. Youve got to look pretty hard. A fear of corniness perhaps? While in fact the most personal is also the most universal. Women Wonderland is unashamedly happy and strangely that is a rarity amongst the current supply of albums. I wanted to put up a fight. The main artery in the music seems chiefly to exist of drama and self-pity.
Women Wonderland exposes neekas international class more clearly than ever. For real talent the difference is always in the details. Perhaps in this case that is the absolute control that she had over the final result. neeka financed the album herself and has therefore made all the artistic choices. Nobody overloaded her with too many opinions. Nobody nagged that they didnt hear the single. Good news: Universal Belgium hears the album and is sold on it immediately.
That entire final production gives her a substantial bonus. In addition to recognisable songs and her own voice (stamp), neeka now also has a unique artistic path. It is pop music with unusual but beautiful sounds and with a very natural biorhythm. Above all it appears to fit perfectly with the current, wildly successful new folk movement (Devendra Banhart, CocoRosie, Joanna Newsom, Rufus and Martha Wainwright). I finally belong somewhere. Those that want to know how good that all feels: fast-forward The Greatest Stuff (number 11) to 338.
