Biography
Emma Peel were an americana-tinged indie singer-songwriters' duo from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, featuring the melancholic voice of Bibian Harmsen (who also played bass) and the guitar of Klaas ten Holt (who also sang). They were a married couple.
Founded in 1994, Emma Peel recorded and released four albums in total with different personnel, Harmsen and Ten Holt being the only permanent members. The eponymous début album, Emma Peel, came out in 2001, followed by Microgynon Girl in 2005.
Then, in November 2011, Bibian Harmsen was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and a life expectancy of less than a year. She insisted on finishing the band's third album, which they were already working on, knowing she was unlikely to ever hear the finished product. Songs were recorded in between chemo sessions, with Klaas and Bibian knowing these were going to be their final recording sessions together.
Bibian died in July 2012, just forty-one years old. Klaas and their three young children carried on without her.
Just before her death she wrote a book ('Paniekspinnen'), which was published posthumously with an all-acoustic Emma Peel CD, (Consolation, as a companion.
In 2018 and 2019 Ten Holt finalized the record intended to be album #3 and, almost seven years after Bibian's death, decided to release it. It is called Ponderosa (2019).
Bibian and Klaas never split up, not as a band and most definitely not as a couple.
According to the band's website Klaas ten Holt works on a new Emma Peel album, the first without Bibian.
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