Liesa Van der Aa

The first seeds of Caramel were born during corona. While the world came to a stop, Liesa and Niels Broos returned to the studio. They improvised on old demos and explored new melodies — together, but often also from a distance. Yet it was only later on, by the wood-burning stove in her parents' house in Grimbergen, that those fragments formed into something new. For there, surrounded by forests and breathing space, a different kind of listening emerged. A form of editing that became almost surgical. ‘Not a single song remained as it was,’ says Liesa. ‘It became an eerily controlled process.’

This is how melodies that return again and again grew. Liesa calls them miniatures — small, enigmatic songs that cannot be pinned down, but linger in the mind. Liesa cut, pasted, played with loops as in hip hop, and so built a universe of sound that navigates between jazz and pop, between melancholy and contemporary freshness. The production was done in close collaboration with Niels Broos, with contributions from actress Sandra Hüller and singer Judith Okon, among others. Influences? From Nina Simone to Laurie Anderson, from Billie Eilish to James Blake — but above all: Liesa's own uncompromising signature.