Bloem de Wilde de Ligny (born 7 July 1978) is a Dutch singer-songwriter, producer, visual artist and musician based in the United Kingdom. de Ligny has released music as a solo artist and as a member of various bands, including Fono & Serafina, Polichinelle, 4Fists, and

Sam and the Womp Sam and the Womp is a British pop group consisting of trumpeter Sam Ritchie and Dutch-born vocalist Bloem de Ligny, also known as Lady Oo. The band's music mixes traditional elements of Balkan music with modern dub and drum 'n' bass elements. ...

. Her image and vocal style have often been compared to Björk. She has also performed under the names Bloem, Bloem de Wilde de Ligny, Serafina Ouistiti, Oo is an Instrument,Oo is an Instrument
Lady Oo, Bloom and most recently Bloom de Wilde.

Early years

Bloem (meaning 'flower' in Dutch) de Wilde de Ligny was born to an

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n father and a Dutch mother. They moved location twenty times before settling in Haarlem. After leaving school, she moved into a squat, and from 1996 began performing music under the name Bloem, appearing on the festival circuit with appearances at the

Oerol Oerol () is a cultural festival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands that is held annually in June. The ten-day festival is focused on live, public theatre as well as music and visual arts. This festival was founded in 1981 by Joop Mul ...

Lowlands Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

and Crossing Border festivals.

''Zink''

de Ligny's festival performances brought her to the attention of the

record company A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

Columbia. In November 1998, under the name Bloem de Ligny, the album ''Zink'' was released, produced by Tricky associate and ex- Boomtown Rats guitarist

Pete Briquette Patrick Martin Cusack (born 2 July 1954), known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band. Boomtown Rats He was born in Bal ...

, with contributions from musician , and recorded at the

Townhouse Studios The Town House (also known as Townhouse Studios) was a recording studio located at 150 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush in London, built in 1978 under the direction of Richard Branson for Virgin Records. The studios changed ownership and eventuall ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. The album's name derives from de Ligny's name for her own fantasy sea. The record company had high expectations, and the album generally received positive reviews, with many comparing her vocal style to that of

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic artist Björk, although de Ligny cites

Robert Wyatt Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is a retired English musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...

as being a bigger influence. The single "Fingiecrookie" was released from the album and the accompanying music video received airplay on a number of music TV channels, but album sales disappointed and she parted company with the record label. de Ligny later moved to Paris for several months, and in the beginning of 2000 studied fine art in Rotterdam.

Later work

In 2002, de Ligny made a guest appearance on the album ''We Should Have Been Stars'' by the band Mist. She collaborated with the band again for their 2008 album ''Period''. Also in 2002, with Ties van der Linden, she formed the ambient pop band Fono and Serafina. Their only album, ''Bathtub'', was released in 2006. Around this time, de Ligny began performing under the stage name Serafina Ouistiti and subsequently attended the

Willem de Kooning Academy The Willem de Kooning Academy ( nl, Willem de Kooning Academie) is a Dutch academy of media, art, design, leisure and education based in Rotterdam. It was named after one of its most famous alumni, Dutch fine artist Willem de Kooning. Overvie ...

of Fine Arts in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, graduating in 2007. In 2005, she formed the band Polichinelle with the artist Bubu. They performed at the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

in 2007. In 2007, de Ligny co-founded, with Bubu and artist Kai Nobuko, the surrealist art collective Dream Society, producing animations, songs, films, and art installations based on sounds and images from "everyday life". de Ligny performs with the Society under the name Oo is an Instrument. Residing in London since 2003, she was involved in the founding of Gattoblaster Records, She has performed in the bands 4Fists and QDOS vs. Audio In 2009, de Ligny joined

as the vocalist and in 2012, their debut single "

Bom Bom "Bom Bom" is a song by the British-Dutch three-piece music group Sam and the Womp. The track was first released in the United Kingdom on 19 August 2012. The song debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart with 107,461 copies sold in its first ...

" went to number one in the UK. The band released their second single 'Ravo' in 2013. In 2014, de Ligny launched her new solo project Bloom and released her first single under that name, "Animal Spirit", which was followed by "Pale Moon Golden Light" the same year and "The World For You" in 2015. In 2015, de Ligny founded Womp Records Ltd with Sam and the Womp bandmate Sam Ritchie to release the band's single 'Zeppelin'. ''Kaleidophone'', de Ligny's second studio album and first since ''Zink'', was released in 2019.

Personal life

de Ligny has

synesthesia Synesthesia (American English) or synaesthesia (British English) is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who re ...

. She became a mother in 2013.

Solo discography

Albums

Studio albums

= As Bloem de Ligny

= As Bloom de Wilde

Live albums

= As Bloem de Ligny

EPs

As Oo is an Instrument

Singles

As Bloem

As Bloem de Ligny

As Bloom

As Bloom de Wilde

References

External links

Bloom de Wilde on FacebookBloom de Wilde on YouTube
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ligny, Bloem de 1978 births Living people Dutch dance musicians Dutch electronic musicians Dutch women singer-songwriters Dutch singer-songwriters Dutch keyboardists Dutch people of Indonesian descent Dutch expatriates in England Dutch expatriates in France People from Apeldoorn Willem de Kooning Academy alumni Women in electronic music