January 11, 2011 - De Morgen
January 11, 2011 - De Morgen
Written by Bart Steenhaut Monday, 10 January 2011 18:00
Scala is ready for America
DM REVIEW Scala, the girls choir from Aarschot stands at a turning point in its career. A few months ago the choir featured in the trailer of ‘The Social Network’. Since then the interest for the choir has rocketed and Stijn & Steven Kolacny, the creative tandem behind Scala, have been signed by the big Warner Bros.
They are expected in the US for a series of concerts, but before taking off Scala had to perform in Louvain for the première of its new tour in Belgium.
Although Scala has performed mainly in Germany in recent years, and despite the fact that their music hardly gets airplay, the girls are very popular in their own country. The première in Louvain was sold out in a few minutes, and the next concerts are nearly all sold out as well. A remarkable success story in which a new chapter is about to be opened and an important one. But the Kolacny brothers remain calm for the moment.
The concert in Louvain was rather a family event than an official première. Stijn Kolacny had become a father a few days earlier - the public soon got to see his new-born son on the video screen - and after the choir singing “Little Man”, Steven’s sons both joined the choir on stage to enjoy the applause.
Rock classics
The atmosphere was relaxed and as usual the brothers were continuously teasing each other: "The next song is without Steven, that’s quite a relief" or "We’ll now sing 'Creep'', strangely enough the song is not about Stijn!". Yet, Scala has progressed considerably again. The whole set is much more professional. In the past, the girls used to stand nearly motionless for the whole concert. Now, a new script allows them to go on stage crossways and even to ‘encircle’ the audience while performing ‘Evigheden’, a song for eight voices. So this tour will be the most dynamic so far, but as far as the songs and the set are concerned, the brothers have left nothing to chance.
The emphasis still lies on rock classics stripped down to their essence and reworked so as to sound as totally different. Sung by thirty angel voices, 'The Beautiful People' of Marilyn Manson even sounds more surprising than the dark original, and 'Hungriges Herz'’ of the German singer Mia is in every bit as good as the original version. Another remarkable fact, within the context of a Scala concert, is that Steven Kolacny’s own compositions measure up to all those hits. 'Seashell' and 'Self-Fulfilling Prophecy' - boosted with a good deal of electronic effects - are highlights in a set that sounds more modern than the songs one normally expects from a choir.
Of course, this is one of the reasons explaining Scala’s huge success. Keeping this in mind, it was rather strange to break the unity of the set by singing two very conventional songs of the Canadian composer Stephen Hatfield, which frightfully neared a variety show. These were the only minus points of the evening, but 'Twee meisjes’ (Two girls) of Raymond Van Het Groenewoud and ‘’Ik hou van u' (I Love You), Scala’s standard encore song, put the whole right and eventually Louvain - which the Kolacnys ironically refer to as a suburb of Aarschot - had to give in. In other words, it was a première to remember.
Conquering America? Scala is eager to do so.
Most of Scala’s concerts are sold out.
