LIESL is the solo project of the young Berlin based singer-songwriter Liesl Lindeque. Liesl started to compose and write her own music and lyrics after moving from South Africa to Berlin at the age of 14. As a young immigrant, song writing became an emotional outlet to process feelings of dislocation, loss and a search for belonging and identity in her new adopted home. With the driving forces of Liesl’s music being piano and voice, her songs can often be characterized by the contrast between delicate piano melodies and dark, introspective lyrics, creating unusual, or even dissonant, harmonies. Unusual vocal harmonies juxta positioned against violin sounds and piano create tension, enhancing the emotional intensity of her songs. The melancholic, piano based sound has been compared to music by Soap&Skin.
The poetic narratives of her lyrics turn deeply personal themes into universal ones by remaining ambiguous, describing the figurative/metaphorical rather than the literal. Connecting the internal and emotional, with the external and anonymous, creates a feeling of detachment and the strong use of imagery acts as a façade between the artist and reality. This theme is represented in her creative work as well as in her image as an artist – with a strong focus on androgyny. An emotional state of being, not necessarily lost, but somewhere in between certainties, is a clear motif in the project, with a vision for the work to remain ambiguous through both sound and image.
The influences for this project mostly draw from observations of the physical world and life in a city. Playing classical piano and violin from a young age has strongly influenced her sound and she is inspired by strong female artists such as Björk, Florence Welsh and Sharon van Etten, as well as by the storytelling styles of Benjamin Clementine and Regina Spektor.
“Swim”, the first single from her coming debut EP, is a call for refuge – balancing the calm and unrest in a turbulent situation. “Swim” is Liesl’s second single release after “Little Wooden Chair” (December 2018) but has been recorded and arranged with a new production team that brings out the nuances of her music with more authenticity.
