theimaginarysuitcase

The imaginary suitcase is the one we carry along throughout our lives, the one that contains or dead or barely breathing illusions and the images of our life as we fantasize it.

The Imaginary Suitcase is also the solo avatar of Laurent Leemans, singer and guitarist in the acoustic folk-rock combo Ceilí Moss since 1995, and before that in a few confidential bands in the 90s.

Cracker sang "what the world needs now is another folksinger like I need a hole in the head" and they were not wrong, but after 15 years of playing full throttle Poguesey folk-rock, the desire for something intimate, sober (you may even call it austere) and personal got stronger than the fear of becoming the 1001st whining brat who buys an acoustic guitar, learns two and a half chords and makes you understand what Schopenhauer meant when he wrote that boredom could be a metaphysical experience…

No stadium stuff, that’s for sure. Rather intense acoustic songs built round Laurent’s deep and versatile voice (often compared to Gordon Lightfoot, David Sylvian or Luka Bloom) and deceptively simple guitar chords.

Can you say The Imaginary Suitcase is a sort of Belgian counterpart to The World Of Skin or maybe Joseph Arthur’s evil twin? Why not? And the listener will probably also perceive the influence of The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smiths, 16 Horsepower / Wovenhand, Paul Roland, Brendan Perry, The The, Death In June, Joy Division or Swans.