Annelies Monseré has been playing music solo since 2000. Initially the music was piano-based and mostly instrumental. Once she ‘discovered’ her voice, vocals became a main focus. The early songs had very simple structures and melodies, and the words were sparse and introvert. Her debut album ‘Helder’ (released by BlueSanct) was described as “a delicate album, complete with beautiful cracks and loads of tape-hiss. […] an intensely intimate album”.
On later albums and EP’s (on labels such as Morc, Stroom and ThreeFour), new routes were explored, such as: inviting other musicians to make contributions (including friends such as Jessica Bailiff, Michael Anderson, Ellen Evers, Nathan Amundson, Justin & Nathan Vollmar, Yumi Verplancke and Steve Marreyt); using different instruments, timbres and recording techniques; interpreting traditional ballads; and introducing drum beats. Lyrically also, the records gained more focus.
On ‘Happiness is within Sight’, released by the Belgian Stroom label in 2018, she tried to exhibit multiple perspectives on a parting between lovers. Follow-up ‘Mares’, that is released by Horn of Plenty, explores personal memories and metaphorical meanings of the sea and how these memories and meanings are distorted or enhanced by future events. 2024’s ‘I sigh, I resign’ deals with power structures, toxic environments, and questioning (his)tories.
Recorded at home in Gent between 2016 and 2023, I Sigh, I Resign retains the intimacy of Mares with it’s close-mic’d keyboards and vocals that capture every breath. Folk and early music are at the core of her sound but the palette of piano, organ, bass guitar, cello, synth and drum machine make it very much a document of the here and now.
The cover features Annelies’s sketches referencing female artists from the Dutch Golden Age who, highly revered at the time, now serve as mere footnotes to Rembrandt, Vermeer et al.
collaborations
Besides her solo work, Annelies is also collaborating with various other musicians. With Jessica Bailiff, an EP has been released by Morc Records, and their debut album – under the moniker Hydromedusae – was released on Trome Records in the summer of 2023. Her full band, Luster, has released its first 10″ (a split with Hellvete) in 2016 and their very well-received debut album has been released in June 2022 on Morc Records. A collaboration with Steve Marreyt, Distels, was released in 2021 on Almost Halloween Time and Feeding Tube Records.
