Dominique Fils-Aimé
My World Is The Sun
AllMusic 90点相当
芸術性の高さ、
高尚な感じがあり、
なんか、評判も良いのだけれど
心地よいという感じは、個人的にあんまり。
ケベック出身のボーカリスト兼ソングライター、
ドミニク・フィス＝エメ
両親はハイチからの移民
アルバムのオープニングは、
70年代に母親のClaudette Thomasが歌っているカセットテープから拾った
「Ma Mélodie」で幕を開ける。
My World Is the Sun, from Québécois vocalist and songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé, is introduced by her Haitian mother, Claudette Thomas, singing "Ma Mélodie" from an old '70s-era cassette. Its placement inspires the entire 15-track set. My World Is the Sun offers lyrics populated by the elements, weather, the sun, and the moon sung in both French and English. Fils-Aimé's voice lies at the center of 21st century soul, jazz, pop, folk, and blues. The album is nocturnal, warm like a bath, and yet gently mercurial in its subtle abstractions. "Sea of Clouds" opens with the sounds of waves crashing against the shore. Keyboardist David Osei Afrifa offers a dark, subtle synth drone under her vocal, appended by percussion, chimes, and a wordless, chantlike lower-register chorale. With emotional resonance, she prayerfully sings, "Sea of clouds/Below my feet/Blue sky always blue/Clear sky always clear/Untroubled/Clear sky be my mind/May my thoughts gather as one for a minute." She answers with "Sun Skin," offered as a dirgy sea shanty. As she heartfully emerges from the chorale, she repetitively imparts, "The sun is my skin glowing" -- not as metaphor but testimony, while layered percussion and violins reflect its truth, earnest and prophetic. Third single "Phoenix Rising" offers a bluesy gospel approach as she chants, "Fire rain down on me," adorned by pulsing piano, snare, tom-toms, and other hand drums. Fils-Aimé's accent on certain syllables evolves throughout as the bass buoys her insistently. "River," another single, is a poetic blues guided by producer Jacques Ray's bassline, elegiac piano, and percussion; she exhorts the beloved to come to the river and join with her to be healed in the refrain -- "All the/Love on this earth/Is meant for you" -- before gravitating to deep soul and jazzy, Latin-tinged R&B. Her spiritual and emotional reflections add depth and weight to music that weaves through Caribbean and African sounds in addition to blues, soul, and jazz. On "Freedom Become," tempos shift around the piano and a resonant trumpet solo, and she continually states, "May freedom become you/May freedom heal you." "Life Remains" is a blues that channels Billie Holiday and Nina Simone simultaneously over a slightly funky jazz backbeat.
Dominique Fils-Aimé
Nameless
