Album Notes

1991-1994
Both seventeen years of age Linde Nijland & Annemarieke Coenders meet in 1991 and become friends. Soon they are singing together. They subscribe for the Dutch art- & music contest "De Kunstbende" in 1992 and become second at it's national music finals in Vredenburg (Utrecht). By now they are calling themselves "Ygdrassil". In 1993 they win the music contest "Pop= Prima" in Groningen. A year later Ygdrassil performs at the Dutch Noorderslag festival where the group strikes a lot of attention. When the jazz & pop label VIA offers them a contract, Linde and Annemarieke accept and start the recordings of their first album.

1995-1996

The debut album "Ygdrassil" is released in 1995. It consists of, for the greater part, self written songs. Their voices are mainly being accompanied on acoustic guitar, added by some a capella's. The CD contains some covers, such as songs of Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Sinead O' Connor. In August the duo appears at the Dutch "Lowlands" festival. Meanwhile Linde and Annemarieke have started touring throughout The Netherlands. Over the years they will perform as a support-act of, for instance, Luka Bloom, Mary Black, Heather Nova, Anne Clarke and Tanya Donelly.

1997-1998

After the succesful debut album Ygdrassil starts recording a second album. The CD "Pieces" is being released in the spring of 1997. It contains purely self written songs. Like the first album, "Pieces" receives very good reviews. After a CD-tour it remains silent for a while, since Annemarieke is graduating from her art studies . Meanwhile Linde is working on a solo project. Her poetic album "Visman", sung in Dutch, is released at the end of 1998.

1999-2000

Annemarieke has finished her studies and Ygdrassil starts the recordings of a third album. This time, as opposed to the previous two albums, quite a few guest musicians do appear. When during the recordings their record company "VIA" is getting bankrupt, Ygdrassil is now on her own. Linde and Annemarieke decide to produce and release the album themselves and the CD "We visit many places" comes out in April 2000. It's released on their own "Real Harm" label and distributed by Pink Records. The critics exceed those of Pieces and the interest in Ygdrassil is growing. The following tour along Dutch pop halls is finished by a splendid performance at "EuroSonic" in January 2001.

2001-2002

In the summer of 2001 Ygdrassil starts the recordings of "Nice days under darkest skies" , Annemarieke and Linde's fourth album. The recordings take place at the Cryptic Recording Studios of Phil Mills in Leeuwarden. The CD is finished near the end of the year and released under own management in february 2002 on the Real Harm Label (distribution Europe: Pink Records). Meanwhile Ygdrassil is getting more and more recognition. The duo has been showcase at the A2A music conference festival (Amsterdam), they start playing in Dutch theatres and make several national radio appearences. Highlights of 2002 are the concerts in the St. Aegten-chapell (Amersfoort), the international Folkwoods festival (Eindhoven) and the start of the theatre season at the Kleine Komedie (Amsterdam).

2003-2004

Ygdrassil starts a theatre tour all along The Netherlands. To celebrate ten years of performing and singing together the first Ygdrassil album "Ygdrassil" (1995) is re-released.

Meanwhile Linde has started a new solo project, around the legendary female folk singer Sandy Denny, together with three folk musisicans: Eddy de Jonge (bass), Bert Ridderbos (guitar, cittern,accordion) and Hans Battenberg (violin) - Hans is later being replaced by Jannet Fink on violin. The CD "Linde Nijland sings Sandy Denny" is released in the autumn of 2003.

In november 2004 Ygdrassil did a small tour in Germany.

2005-2006

At the end of 2004 multi-instrumentalist Bert Ridderbos has joined Ygdrassil. He also contributed in recording and engineering the fifth CD 'Easy Sunrise'together with Linde and Annemarieke. The album was released in november 2005 by Rounder-Europe. The record achieved widespread attention over Europe, with stunning reviews in Le Figaro (FR) and Froots (UK). A succesfull tour in The UK followed.

2007-2008

After more than 15 years of singing together Linde and Annemarieke split for a few years and went seperate ways in solo activities. The last gig was on The Festival Folk in de Wâlden at Oentsjerk (The Netherlands),June 16th 2007.
In 2008 the dvd Ygdrassil Live at The Folkwoods Festival 2006 was released,showing a breathtaking performance at the most appealing folk festival in The Netherlands.