Liesa van der Aa from Belgium is an actress, violin player, and singer whose first opera will premier next year. Her classical background took a whole different direction when she discovered The Velvet Underground, Prince and Chet Baker, and since that period she has played the violin with effects, a bit like Jamie Lidell used to do with the loop effects on his voice. On her album Troops you think you hear all kinds of instruments, but it is always her violin, with a bit of help from Boris Wilsdorf, the studio technician for Einstürzende Neubauten. Just like the Belgian media wrote: “Liesa van der Aa likes to hit and caress, often in the same song.”