LA VIERGE DU CHANCELIER ROLIN was one of Belgium's most promising bands of the early 90’s. Their original sound, the use of the violin and of the classical guitar, the fact each member was also a vocalist or that they frequently disregarded the traditional verse-chorus form made them one of the most original and exciting bands Belgium produced.
Founded in 1990, LVDCR took its name from a Jan Van Eyck painting. Some musicians already had some stage experience in the cold-wave combo FACELESS VOICES. The first two years saw the band defining its style and undergo frequent line-up changes, before finding stability with the arrival of vocalist Laurent Leemans (who had a little stage experience of his own with the fun-punk band MOÏSE & LES MANCHES DE PIOCHE) in the end of 1992. The line-up remained the same until the band's breakup.:
Pierre Christophe: bass, vocals
Nicolas Dernoncourt: drums, keyboards, vocals
Thibaud Latour: classical & electric guitars, vocals
Laurent Leemans: vocals, keyboards, electric guitar
Sarah Turine: violin, keyboards, vocals
Jean-Philippe Van Cauteren: keyboards, vocals, bass, drums
Taking their inspiration from early 80s new wave bands like AND ALSO THE TREES or ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, avant-garde/experimental bands such as PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA or THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS as well as from contemporary composers like MICHAEL NYMAN, PHILIP GLASS or WIM MERTENS, with a folky-acoustic edge sometimes reminiscent of ALAN STIVELL, they defined a unique style, romantic and poppy, elaborate and catchy, emotional, powerful and entrancing.
Their live shows, often enhanced with video projections, and their debut CD 'Eva King' were widely acclaimed by the Belgian musical press, and most predicted them a bright future. They subsequently did several support-acts for a.o. MIRANDA SEX GARDEN, AND ALSO THE TREES, THE BREATH OF LIFE, LEGENDARY PINK DOTS or COLLECTION D’ARNELL-ANDREA.
But rather than capitalizing on their freshly hatched fame, LVDCR launched itself in projects such as touring Bosnia-Herzegovina twice with a humanitarian project, participating in an avant-garde theatre festival at Derry (Ulster) or composing the soundtrack for the Berthold Brecht's play 'What's the price of steel?' and playing it live for about 30 representations in Brussels, Liège, Tournai, Namur and other places in Belgium.
No doubt extraordinarily enriching on a human level, but commercially suicidal ... and cherry on top, their label goes bankrupt in 1996! Slowly but surely, LVDCR was replaced in the press and the public’s attention by the emerging generation (dEUS, Venus, Moondog jr., Sharko, ...) who were much better at managing a career.
The band axed itself in the beginning of 1999. Today, Laurent plays in the folk-rock band CEILÍ MOSS, Jean-Philippe works at Rising Sun recording studios in Brussels, Nicolas is in the staff of the Queen Elizabeth musical contest, Sarah has gone into politics with the Ecolo (green) party, the others tried to build a new band under the name O-ÏD, but have not been heard of since.
