Lafleur Ylanoire
Lafleur Ylanoire are two young musicians from Heidelberg, Germany: Nora-Marie Borrusch and Flora Bastian. They write and play their songs themselves, sometimes accompanied by other musicians - that's why the name "Lafleur Ylanoire" actually stands not only for the two "basic" members, but for several different "sets" of musicians.
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
Since 2001, Nora and Flora have shared their music and written and sung many songs together. In 2002, their band "Fever" had their first official concert on stage, and a promising future was to come (or so they thought) - but unfortunately, before their music made its way into the studio and onto CD, the band broke apart.
The girls then turned away from playing in bands and continued making music on their own, accompanied only by guitar and / or piano.
Recently (from October 2005 on) they have gone separate ways, living in different cities now, but not without sharing and enjoying their music once in a while.
In 2003, Flora started writing mainly campfire and scout songs and ballads, as she still does today, her main focus lying on what is said and how it suits starry summer evenings. :)
Nora's way led towards "more classical" arrangements, and in her recordings, classical instruments often play along with her great voice.
(According to Nora, Flora's songs have become more minor (in the musical sense!!!) than earlier, and her subjects have become more fantastic and gone off that dreamer's realistic road, whereas Nora's songs have become more and more influenced by the classical analysis vice versa, which does not only affect the instruments but the way of singing and writing as well.)
But still they share a common sense of aesthetics, and an interest in ballads, in fantasy and myths, and thus their songs can still be seen as belonging together, to one music group, in some sense.
Most of the songs are rather quiet and melancholic, telling stories about people that lived long ago, or people living now, or people that live only in our fantasy (especially Nora has a great skill in setting to music the songs and poems by J.R.R. Tolkien, while Flora even dared to work on a translation of a poem by Goethe!).
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Flora: Of course we do play live. (Only live, I should say...) :)
Nora: Everything's life... :)
Flora: The best place to play music, in my opinion, is at a campfire under the stars. But we're also fond of stages, which is sometimes pretty funny - considering the fact that our first public gig (at that time our band was a little bit bigger, a little less good, and was called "Fever") took place at a school for deaf-mute children ;D
Your musical influences
Nora: Writing songs I'm basically influenced by Irish or Scottish Folk and program music (if you for example listen to Sailor's Grave). And, of course, our textual influences derive from fairy-tales and all sorts of fantastic worlds, and not the last of these I like to invent.
What equipment do you use?
Flora: Guitar, voices, and everything that we deem beautiful (and that we can get our hands on :) ) - flute, violoncello, piano, violin, wind, birds, drums, hands, teeth, ...!
Nora: All what she says, and birdies, especially birdies... :)
