Costa Rica and New Orleans-based jazz artist Cyrille Aimée just released her much-awaited "à Fleur de Peau" record with a Caribbean blend last Friday, March 8, through Whirlwind Records.
The full album follows Aimée's three well-received lead singles "Beautiful Way," "Again Again" and "Back to You," all of which have received quaintly-shot and endearing music videos available on the artist's YouTube channel.
As for the album, you can listen to it by clicking here.
'À Fleur de Peau,' a Poppy Blend of Jazz and Costa Rican Culture
Aimée has cemented her place as an artistic mouthpiece of the jazz tradition and its boundless depth, learning from the gypsy masters of her childhood home of France.
This culturally entrenched mentorship would then become a recurring theme across her career, as she found herself studying under great master composers across the world from New York to New Orleans, and most recently, in Costa Rica
However, in developing "À Fleur de Peau," specifically, she embarked in a new kind of musical exploration: using completely personal and original words, compositions, and arrangements that drew on her heritage.
The album was then fully fleshed out with her close collaborator and co-producer Jake Sherman, an American multi-instrumentalist, bringing out the cultural richness of her Dominican roots in the form of African dance rhythm and Spanish folksong soundscapes, while still retaining the allure of a contemporary pop structure.
As per the artist, the origins of the album can be traced deep within the forests of Costa Rica, during a fascinating chronicle of the artist's "creative rebirth."
"I've been writing forever, but this album is my real birth as a songwriter," Aimée explained. "Then when the pandemic hit, I moved to some land I had bought in Costa Rica and - to my own amazement - I designed and built a house in the jungle all by myself."
Aimée said that the house eventually became an "inspiration" and "creative outlet" for her, which helped the creation of the new songs she would then bring to New York where Sherman worked and finally "finished what they started."
The duo would then develop a free-flowing creative process that saw Aimée performing live with her voice, guitar, or baritone ukulele, before Sherman and her would add on the layers of the arrangement.
Here and there, the jazz artist would incorporate her "patented" vocal scat improvisations translated into horns, percussion parts, and counter melodies that Sherman would apply using his expertise with the varying instruments and his actual collection of musical accouterments.
The results are a wide spectrum of musical stylings that are anchored by Aimée's enthralling vocal performances.
"À Fleur de Peau" - Tracklist:
1 Beautiful Way
2 Again Again
3 For the Love of You
4 Inside and Out
5 Yo soy Diosa
6 Back to You
7 Feel What I Feel
8 Here
9 Ma Préférence
10 Historia de Amor
