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AboutCibelle is a musical force of nature. On this, her debut album, Cibelle for Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees, not only did she sing everything, the Brazilian also wrote or co-wrote virtually the entire disc, in addition to co-producing the record with her startlingly talented young countryman, Apollo 9. It's everything you'd expect from someone whose first appearance on recording was with the late, gifted Suba. Cibelle goes anywhere the Brazilian chanteuse's imagination takes her, exploring sensual bossa nova, downtempo electronica, samba, jazz, and beyond. The mixing, by Chris Harrison and Pete Norris, the men behind Morcheeba's sound, brings out her stunning vision. While Cibelle is undoubtedly a Brazilian album, it is just as much a jazz album. And an electronic album. And a spiritual album. And a humorous album in places too. Above all though, it's a natural album. The key sound-sculptor on the project is Sao Paulo switch-doctor Apollo 9, but Cibelle also peppered the project with a host of venerable musicians and guest vocalists, from percussionist Joao Parahyba of Trio Mocoto, Cuban pianist Pepe Cisneros, and guitarist and composer Ari Moraes to Ross Godfrey of Morcheeba, trombone player Bocato, and percussionist Eder Rocha of Mestre Ambrosio. She's also joined by bossa nova veteran vocalist Johnny Alf, rapper Xis, guitarist and bassist Richard Harrison, French electronic producer David Walters of Zimpala and bass players Serginho Carvalho and Robinho. Cibelle is a natural culmination for someone who admits she was always the "full-on arty kind." At six Cibelle insisted that her mother send her to music school, where she began attending guitar class. She took piano lessons until she was twelve, and a couple of years later "got into steady acting and singing at lunch break - everything was an excuse to sing. I joined Ford Models, but I didn't think much of it." That led to television commercials, but Cibelle, the trained actress, performed "mostly doing physical comedy, a character. I did some goofy stuff on MTV Brazil, the promo stuff - I even had a pie in the face once! And I loved it."

Singing remained a vital part of her life, but it was simply something she did for fun until a respected musician heard her one day and told her she was a singer. "That was the first time I took it seriously." Cibelle had found her passion. She'd go from club to club, jam session to jam session, singing a few songs in each. But her life wouldn't really change until she met Suba, the Yugoslavian producer and keyboard player with a vision of a new Brazilian sound. "I went to a jam session one night and I was smoking my Indian cigarettes, when this tall guy, dressed in black, not looking Brazilian at all, lit my smoke with his Zippo. That was Suba. Later I heard this crazy samba with really cool synth, that was weird and exactly what I was looking for, and it was him. A friend pulled me onstage to sing. At the end Suba said he'd been looking for a singer and would I come to his home studio the next day?" Cibelle sang on three tracks on Suba's groundbreaking album, Sao Paulo Confessions. That CD is one of most seminal and revered albums to come from the Brazilian electronic scene. Its erudite blend of traditional sounds and technological prowess was ahead of its time. Cibelle was the main vocalist on the album, enhancing tracks like the wonderful "Sereia," "Tantos Desejos" and "Felicidade," the latter of which placed the lyrics to Tom Jobim's classic bossa nova tune to a truly unique soundscape. After Suba's untimely death in 1999, Cibelle appeared on Suba Tributo, before spreading her wings and guesting with Juryman on Escape to Where, then offering her sultry voice to up-and-coming singer/songwriter/guitarist Celso Fonseca for his Natural album, (also on Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees Records). The stage was set for Cibelle to make her own record working with Brazilian electronica hero Apollo 9 and she was more than ready. She'd started writing long before she met Suba, "and some of those lyrics are on the album. Some I wrote the week they were recorded - and the same with the melodies. The whole process was really organic."

She also made sure the sessions were fun and different, "even the way we made samples. I'd close my eyes, put the needle on the record and say, 'Go Apollo, record!'" The jazzy, moody "Waiting" came about after she went to the supermarket "and recorded the cash register and the refrigerator. Next day I went to the studio, and Apollo asked, 'What have you got?' I said, 'Well, I've got this cash register and this fridge and I want to make a track from them.' So he created the bass line, and we started jamming on top. We started adding stuff to it. We both love mellotrons, and Apollo collects old keyboards. My vocal on the record is the original demo." She never set limits on herself. "When you're building a track, it's like picking ice creams, trying everything. That's how Suba worked, and that's how I learned to work. It's chaotic, but nice. Everything I listen to and like, I embrace it, and let it come out in my music. I want it to be there. The music happens by itself. I have some initial ideas." In fact, she has more than that; Cibelle was involved with writing nearly every track on Cibelle. The sole exception was Antonio Carlos Jobim's languid bossa nova, "Inutil Paisagem," subtly rearranged as a duet with bossa veteran Johnny Alf over mellotron, with Cibelle herself providing "naive scratching." The song was a natural choice for her, because "I love it. That was all I needed. I was translating the lyric for a friend, realized how much I loved it, and decided to record it." Her album is playful, sensual, familiar but unusual; the perfect distillation of her personality. It's organic and chameleonic, as only a Cibelle album can be, moving mellifluously through a variety of music styles. After all, this is a young woman who takes inspiration from Nina Simone, Tom Jobim, Bjork, 4hero, Ella Fitzgerald and Matmos. Although she's recently begun deejaying ("A little bit. It's more disc selecting. I can't really scratch."), she's eager to hit the road with a band. "I can't wait to start gigging. I need musicians around me, I need to be doing music and singing or at least shaking a shaker. I need live music."

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