Paulette Verlée reworks Charlotte de Witte's Doppler
After being inspired by Erik Satie and François Couperin, Paulette stayed closer to home for the new EP. Paulette, who does not like to be pigeonholed, went looking for Belgian present-day pop songs to put her own spin on them. Six well-known hits were transformed into concise piano works: Strange Entity (Oscar & The Wolf), Taxi (Angèle), Indigo Night (Tamino), Goud (Bazart), You (Selah Sue) and Doppler (Charlotte de Witte) out today.
The piano metamorphosis of a techno song by the world's best female DJ Charlotte de Witte was the icing on the cake. From melody to beats, everything you hear comes from the same instrument: the piano. At first sight an impossible task to rework this techno track, until she dismantled her piano piece by piece. The soundboard together with muted bass strings became the basis and the beat of her version. Afterwards, all the piano puzzle pieces fell into place.
As a classical pianist, the dance scene is not exactly Paulette's natural habitat, but of course she knew the name Charlotte de Witte. In one of the rare interviews de Witte gave, she said: “I make melancholic, hard and dark music. I find beauty in music that is bare and stripped down. Less is more. Heavy and melancholy music just makes me think more than happy pop.” A striking resemblance to Paulette's take on music.
At the tender age of five, Paulette found herself irresistibly attracted to the upright piano in the family home. Hence she started fondling the black and white keys way before she could read or write. As a matter of course Paulette Verlée (the artistic alter ego of Veerle Pollet) went on to study piano at the renowned Lemmens Institute in Leuven. At one point, Verlée was involved with a jazz trio called One Trick Po. She even ventured into chamber music.
Verlée’s compositions are usually meditative and drenched in melancholy, although at times they manifest some frivolous traits as well. ‘I hate things to be far-fetched, so it’s a conscious decision to keep my work concise and accessible’. Paulette Verlée prefers creating an atmosphere, evoking familiar emotions, creating images in the listener’s mind. Neoclassical music with a pop structure? Well, yes. The artist’s fully instrumental first album suggests that after a number of detours, she has finally made it home. Even though she writes repetitive piano pieces, Verlée does not shy away from computer beats or distorted sounds.
