Hooverphonic

With their dreamy, glacial, electro ballads and orchestral pop bliss, Hooverphonic were part of the European trip-hop scene of the mid-1990s, quickly finding themselves billed as Belgium's equivalent to the likes of Portishead and Goldfrapp.

Formed in the city of Sint-Nikklas in East Flanders, the band was launched by bass player Alex Callier, keyboardist Frank Duchene, and guitarist Raymond Geerts, who bonded over post-punk bands, film scores, hip-hop and minimal electronica. With vocalist Liesje Sadonius on board, they used loops and hushed melodies to create warm, dubby, synth-pop grooves on the debut album A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1996), whose popularity spread to the UK and the US. Hooverphonic toured with Massive Attack, Moloko, Morcheeba, and Fiona Apple, and their single "2Wicky" — which sampled Isaac Hayes' version of "Walk On By" — was used in the movies Stealing Beauty and I Know What You Did Last Summer. Sadonius was then replaced in the band by 18-year-old singer Geike Arneart, and Duchene left the group after the release of Hooverphonic's second album, Blue Wonder Power Milk (1998). As one of Belgium's most successful and influential groups, they continued to make downbeat, cinematic music with 2000's The Magnificent Tree and 2002's Hooverphonic Presents Jackie Cane, the latter of which became their first Number 1 hit in Belgium.

Lineup changes persisted, with Arnaert pursuing a solo career after the release of The President of the LSD Golf Club and being replaced by Noemie Wolfs on 2010's The Night Before and 2013's Reflection. Remaining daring, eccentric, modern psych-pop auteurs, the band returned to the top of the Belgian charts with 2016's In Wonderland and introduced a new frontwoman, Luka Cruysbergh, on the singles "Romantic" and "Uptight" in 2018. Geike Arnaert returned to the lineup in 2020 and appeared on "The Wrong Place," which climbed to Number 1 on Belgium's Ultrapop 50 Flanders chart and served as the country's submission to the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, where the song finished in nineteenth place.