Nynke Laverman
With her début Sielesâlt she immediately caught the attention. In 2003 Nynke Laverman surprised The Netherlands with her 'Frisian fado', the traditional song from Portugal, sung in Frisian, her mother tongue. The album obtained the Golden status and she received the Piter Jelles Priis, a literary prize for the translations of the Slauerhoff poems she made for the album.
With every album that followed she searched again for musical renewal and deepening, the Frisian language as the constant element. She travelled a lot, inspired by different countries and cultures, among which Portugal, Mexico, Spain and Mongolia. In the last country she stayed for a month at a nomadic family on the steppe, which led to the album Nomade. For the first time she wrote all the songs herself, collaborating with guitarist/producer Ward Veenstra. In 2010 the album was rewarded with an Edison.
Her previous album Alter (2013) was recorded in Madrid with her husband Sytze Pruiksma and the famous Spanish producer Javier Limón. He approached her songs from a flamenco point of view. With Alter she made the step to the international stage; the album appeared worldwide and was received very well by the British, German and Spanish press. A European tour followed with concerts at WOMAD (UK), North Sea Jazz (NL), La Mar de Músicas (ES), Transcender London (UK) and Women in (E)motion (D).
The power of diversity is something she stands for in her work. "Diversity in nature, people, cultures, languages, ideas, it is the key to survival on the long term and to a nice and healthy living environment anyhow. That's one of the reasons why I choose to use Frisian as a singing language, to let people hear the cultural richness we have on this planet, often without realizing it ourselves."
Nynke will present her brand new album Wachter at the Oerol Festival 2016. A musical ode to the art of waiting, in which the power of language plays an even bigger role than before and in which the cello has a central place. She produced it together with her husband Sytze Pruiksma and recorded everything at home. Sebastiaan Kool