An Pierlé

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An Pierlé

An Pierlé (born An Miel Mia Pierlé in Deurne, near Antwerp, Belgium in 1974) is a Belgian pianist and singer-songwriter.

1 Career
2 Mud Stories
3 Helium Sunset
4 White Velvet
5 Discography
6 External links

[edit] Career

She supposedly declared that at a very young age she decided that she would be an actress, singer, musician and dancer, most preferably all at the same time. She studied classical piano, but practically hated her education. She enrolled at the age of 17 at the art-school Studio Herman Teirlinck in Antwerp. In her third year there she made a solo-programme with songs of her own, alone at the piano. Shortly after she became known to a moderately wide audience in 1996 when she entered Humo's Rock Rally with a tape of her own version of Are 'Friends' Electric?, originally sung by Tubeway Army. The song ended up on a number of albums, including Random, a tribute album to Gary Numan (of the Tubeway Army) composed of covers of Gary Numan songs. Mr.Numan said he was impressed by An's version.

After this, An toured for two years with a theatre group, and starred in a Belgium television series ("Moeder, waarom leven wij"), gave a few solo performances and collaborated with DAAU on their song "Broken", where she sings all of the vocals.

[edit] Mud Stories

In 1998 she signed a record deal with Warner Music Benelux. This resulted in her first album titled Mud Stories, completely in singer-songwriter fashion. Most of the album was recorded on electric piano in the winter of 1998 and 1999 in the attic of a theatre in Gent (in some songs, with high quality audio equipment, very faint background car noises can be heard). The extra acoustic piano parts were done in the spring of 1999. This resulted in a range of songs with very little production, essentially An and her piano, plus an occasional accordion.

Mud Stories speaks to the mind with complex lyrics and professional piano play, which misled the press (especially the Dutch) into comparing her with Tori Amos, much to An's surprise. An herself said that her music was not at all influenced by Tori Amos, but rather by John Cale and classical music.

The record sold over 25,000 copies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Even though the Dutch press didn't give her good reviews, she managed to sell a lot of albums, possibly because of her extensive touring and appearing at a few big festivals.

[edit] Helium Sunset

In 2002 An Pierlé released her second record, Helium Sunset. Unlike the previous album, this album was also released outside of the Benelux and France. The sound of Helium Sunset moves away from the solo performance format to a more enriched band feel, with expanded drums, cello and other instruments. An's lyrical style remained highly poetic and complex. Most of the songs here were co-written by Koen Gisen.

Following the release of Helium Sunset was a live album named Live Jetset with Orchestra, an album with back up from a full orchestra. The album was first released only as the second CD of the Belgian double release. It was later released as a separate disc, including original artwork. This album was apparently very limited in release numbers and sold out pretty quickly.

2005 saw a new release of Helium Sunset, complete with a new cover featuring An Pierlé (unlike the first releases). In France, a 2-disc version of this was released. The second disc contained the cover "Il est 5 heures (Paris)", which was a moderately successful radiohit in France and Belgium, plus a few live tracks recorded during a radio session in the United Kingdom.

[edit] White Velvet

An Pierlé and band released the album An Pierlé & White Velvet in early May 2006. An and the band are now also performing under the same name. As of late April 2006, the first single named "How Does It Feel?" was already available for download in online stores, including two studio live covers. Next single in Benelux and France was the track "Jupiter".