Acclaimed Artist Cyrille Aimée Shares New Single from March 8th Release
Updated: Mar 21
Costa Rica/New Orleans-based musician Cyrille Aimée has just released her playful new single “Here” via Whirlwind Recordings. The Dominican/French singer’s track comes from her upcoming album, à Fleur de Peau to be released on March 8th and followed by a run of tour dates to celebrate the project. Pre-Save the album here.
A frustrating yet common experience inspired the song. “I wrote “Here” after I accidentally dropped my phone in the toilet!” Cyrille explains, “It was totally dead and I decided not to get a new one. So for 9 months I lived without a phone and had to write down directions off of the computer before going somewhere, and just watch the world around me when I had to wait for someone.” she continues, “It was amazing all the things I never noticed before because of being on my phone. Especially noticing things inside of me, and getting acquainted with myself was such a learning experience! It was a very inspiring moment of pure presence and so this song came out of it.”
On “Here” she sings, “there’s nowhere else but here, watching the clouds go by for hours, day turns into night and I guess I didn't notice …you were a ghost that blurred my vision… a false friend I kept in the palm of my hand…. I fell into a web of my addiction, one look and you pulled me in ..one touch and i'm blind again …so many stories that i lived thru your lie, but since i turned you off I see…”
While the subject matter can be a bit dark, Cyrille ultimately arrives at the peacefulness that comes with being present. Adding to the effortless optimism of the song are the young singers from The Williamsburg School of Music Chorus, while accompanying playground sounds leaking through add even more brightness and joy to the pure grooving positivity of the song.
Listeners may think that they know Cyrille Aimée: the matchless interpreter of song, steeped in the jazz tradition she learned from the gypsy masters in her native France. It’s a story that has been told many times across Cyrille’s career taking her on a magic carpet ride from France to New York and then to New Orleans, and now onto Costa Rica while pursuing her musical vision through the works of some of the world’s great composers of popular song.
À Fleur de Peau presents Cyrille for the first time in her own words, with her own original compositions and arrangements, developed in close collaboration with co-producer, multi-instrumentalist/producer Jake Sherman. Drawing on her Dominican heritage, with its combination of African dance rhythms and Spanish folksongs, this new album embraces the directness of contemporary pop structure, with lyrics that are inspired by her experiences.
The album’s genesis originates far from New York or Cyrille’s adopted New Orleans home, deep within the forests of Costa Rica: an astonishing tale of a creative rebirth. Cyrille shares her process, “I’ve been writing forever, but this album is my real birth as a songwriter. 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. It was my creative outlet, and my inspiration. The house was my baby and I found myself writing again, gaining confidence as I built and wrote. Back in New York I took my new songs to Jake and said ‘Let’s finish what we started!’.” Cyrille’s ‘jungle house’ in Costa Rica was featured on several travel channels, impressed by its simplicity, sustainability and beauty.
Cyrille says “I want to inspire women to create: with their hands, their wombs, their voices, whatever inspires them.” With à Fleur de Peau, Cyrille combines the depth and sophistication of jazz, the immediacy of pop, the irrepressible dance rhythms of the Caribbean, it’s more intimate and more accessible than anything she has done before. This marks a new chapter in her journey as an artist.
North American Tour Dates
Mar 13: Amaturo Theater - Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Mar 15: Dalton Center Recital Hall - Kalamazoo, MI
Mar 16: Blue LLama - Ann Arbor, MI
Mar 17: SPACE - Evanston, IL
Mar 18: Jazz Coterie - Appleton, WI
Mar 19: Dakota - Minneapolis, MN
Mar 28: Jefferson Center - Roanoke, VA
Apr 8: MIM - Phoenix, AZ*
Apr 9: The Old Church: Portland, OR*
Apr 10: The Shedd - Eugene, OR*
Apr 11: Ellen Theatre - Bozeman, MT*
Apr 12: The Triple Door - Seattle, WA*
Apr 14: Eisemann Center - Richardson,TX (Solo with Big Band)
Apr 18: Ellen Theater - Mamaroneck, NY* *(Duo with Mathis Picard)
Apr 19: Jazz at Lincoln Center - New York, NY (Special Guest Sarah Vaughan Tribute)
Apr 20: Jazz at Lincoln Center - New York, NY (Special Guest Sarah Vaughan Tribute)
Apr 21: Jimmy’s - Portsmouth, NH (Duo with Mathis Picard)
April 23 - 27: Birdland - New York, NY