Violin & accordion duo Laura Cortese & Bert Ruymbeek play Hastings

They are promising to “capture the atmosphere of meaningful moments and turn them into memorable tales of sound, sometimes with lyrics, sometimes instrumental.”

Laura has built her career as an Americana fiddler, songwriter and vocalist. She grew up in San Francisco and studied in Boston before moving to Ghent, Belgium in 2018. Bert is an accordion player from Ghent whose energy and lyrical playing are influenced by northern-European folk music.

Laura explains: “We got together because I met Bert on the way home from the Shetland Folk Festival in 2016. At the time I didn't speak Dutch and he was there with his band talking in this language I didn’t understand but when we were about to go home that was our first chance to talk. We were both single and we had both had an incredible weekend at the Shetland festival. We were chatting on the way back and finding out that we had all these random details in common. We were watching the sunrise and we thought we should take the opportunity to kiss because we would probably never see each other again! We exchanged mailing addresses and we used to send each other postcards and then messages online and then we thought maybe we should see each other again. We met up six months later in person and that's when we became a couple.”

Originally they hadn't intended to perform together: “We both had our own projects and we both had our own musical identities but then in 2020 you could only play in your bubble because of the pandemic. You could only perform if you were playing with someone that you were actually living with. We got asked by a festival that put on outdoor walks for people. We weren't going to make music together but then at that point we did. At the time we were just writing together for a new baby or for someone getting married or to celebrate moments in the lives of our friends. And so we added pandemic to the list of reasons we would work together! That first festival went really well and they said to us was there any chance that we might do some more work together and make a show. We started down that journey and so we started playing not just for our intimate circle but for a much wider circle as well.”

Bert says the combination works well: “If there is a tune, we both contribute to the melodic ideas. I'm usually in charge of the chords and arranging and accompanying Laura but the big advantage of being a couple is that we can be very critical of each other if we need to be. There are very few filters. We have been around long enough and had enough experience to know what is happening and not to take it personally. The quality of the music is the important thing. It is the main goal that we have and we want to be enthusiastic about playing and performing. When we are rehearsing, it is kitchen music in a way. We rehearse at home. The music is about people that we encounter and experiences that we have had like becoming parents together. It's very honest music. We are completely ourselves.”