Hessels, Lena

Born in December 2000 in the Witte Villa in Wormer (NL), Lena Hessles grew up in the midst of music. Her father Terrie is The Ex’s guitarist, her mother Emma played violin and they both run the adventurous Terp label. Musicians like Han Bennink, Sonic Youth, Konono No.1, Getatchew Mekuria and many more stayed in the house regularly. She visited Ethiopia starting when she was three and many times after for many music projects. When Lena finished high school this summer, she was very determined to make her own record straight away. She "locked" herself up in the top room where she started a little studio. After three weeks writing, practicing, recording and recording again, she was finished. Billow is ready! LP LIMITED TO 500 COPIES AND COMES WITH POSTER! 
 
“Please tell Lena I listened to her CD and the informal, personal approach reminded me of some of my favorite people, like Scout Niblett, Cat Power and Azita Yousseffi. There’s something nice about hearing somebody making up their own kind of music without playing the mix-and-match game from other people’s music, and I hope she continues. I also tend to like records recorded at home. There’s a lovely album that came out a few years ago by Molly Drake, who was Nick Drake’s mother, just her singing at the piano, recorded at home very simply. It was never released in her lifetime, probably very few people heard it, but it’s extremely nice for the same reason.” - Steve Albini, 10/2018