The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves [ENHANCED]

Cibelle

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 2006)
• Original Release Date: May 2, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced
• Label: Six Degrees
• ASIN: B000EZ8ZSA
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,261 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > Latin Music > Urban > Latin Electronica

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Since her breakout performance on Suba's landmark Sao Paolo Confessions, singer Cibelle (pronounced see-Bell-ee) has enchanted Brazilian pop aficionados with her lovely musical purr. Here on her second album, the cool lounge production of her debut is pushed into a darker, more experimental realm without losing her music's sensual beauty. As ambitious as the production, the songwriting is challenging too with highlights like "Phoenix" and "Flying High" using a linear style rather than the back and forth of a verse, bridge and chorus arrangement. There's a couple of interesting covers as well--while her spare version of Tom Waits's "Green Grass" is a seemingly offbeat choice, her haunting, glitchy and near-unrecognizable cover of Jobim's "Por Toda A Minha Vida" is a different kind of surprise. With ultra-cool Apollo Nove and Tunng in the producers' chair, this subtle kind of sonic and music revision is to be expected, but it's a tribute to the singer that she keeps the challenging sound under the sway of her lovely voice. --Tad Hendrickson

Product Description
Like no one else, Brazilian born Cibelle makes use of a variety of elements to create unique, imaginative and enchanting peices of music. Her second album (the follow-up to 2003's inspired eponymous debut) is a genuine masterpiece. Moving into even more adventurous sonic terrain than its predecesor, the "Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves" combines rootsy acoustic instrumentation, electronic processing, noise guitars & children's toys, captivating textural soundscapes & pure melodies all anchored by Cibelle's unmistakable, moving voice. Cibelle produced this album over a period of 18 months, taking some of the tracks with her from London (where she now resides) to Sao Paulo (her home town) and back, gathering along the way contributions from various co-producers and performers, including Mike Lindsay (from UK Folktronica act Tunng);Apollo Nove (the innovative producer/artist from Sao Paulo, who produced most of her debut album); Parisian mixer, Yann Arnaud (Air, ! Sebastien Schuller), and guests such as Seu Jorge (of "City of God" and "The Life Aquatic' fame), freak folk pioneer, Devendra Banhart, and CocoRosie collaborator Spleen. While some of the album's ten original compositions and three covers are simple, limpid crytalline gems (her renditions of Tom Waits' "Green Grass" and of Jobim's "Por Toda Minha Vida" to name but a few).

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Experimental and beautiful electro-bossa, November 14, 2006

By	MUSiCOLOGY - See all my reviews

Like Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian Cibelle made her name working with the ill-fated Serbian producer Suba (both starred on his first and last album "Sao Paulo Confessions"), and Cibelle's first album explored similar electro-bossa territory.

Her second outing sees her move into a much more wobbly acoustic terrain, assisted by Mike Lindsay from folktronica duo Tunng and by the Moogy Brazilian psych-funk producer Apollo Nove.

Cibelle (pronounced `see-belly', apparently) has a similarly winsome voice to Bebel Gilberto, although she doesn't sing with such a strong Brazilian accent.

She retains some links to Brazilian music: Devendra Banhart duets on a pleasingly giggly reading of Caetano Veloso's charming "London London", "The Life Aquatic" star Seu Jorge lays down some bossa nova guitar lines on "Arrête Lâ, Menina" and there's an ambient electronic version of Tom Jobim's "Por Toda a Minha Vida".

But what really transforms this album are the idiosyncratic and distinctly un-Brazilian rhythm tracks, recorded using a Matthew Herbert-ish arsenal of kitchenware (spoons, paper cups, plastic bottles, wooden boxes, etc).

Think a Brazilian Björk and you're nearly there.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appearances Can Be Deceiving, May 8, 2006

By	Tom "tomintoronto" (Toronto,, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

Check out the pose on the CD cover. Cibelle looks every inch the beautiful formal model that she is. And she wears evening gowns in concert to heighten the effect. But here is the catch: the evening gown she wore when I saw her looked like a 1960's prom model, and she was wearing it sideways. Cibelle is definitely different.

She has a great voice, but there are as many female vocalists in Brazil with great voices as their are great football players. What sets her apart is her sense of adventure. Most of her material is, in whole or in part, way out there. A veteran of the superb Suba sessions, she has continued to develop in original and startling ways. Her music is not always easy to listen to, but it is always worth the effort. The directions her songs take are often wildly unpredictable with the most sophisticated electronic embellishments quickly followed by a glockenspiel, for instance. She likes to stretch and bend rhythms and to reinvent genres, and she is obviously quite comfortable in challenging her audience. Worth noting, she doesn't just rely on fresh, daring song writers: she co-wrote half the songs on the album.

It's not a perfect album. She does the "sex kitten" vocal thing a tad too often, and some of the English lyrics probably should have stayed in Portuguese. But both those are small quibbles. She, not Bebel Gilberto, not Maria Rita, is the most important female artist to emerge in Brazil since Maria Monte, and this CD is even better than her first solo album.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Impression, March 1, 2007

By	Fesenjen "Fes" (Bainbridge Island, WA USA) - See all my reviews

I'm just finishing listening to this album for the fist time, and I'm definitely rating it thumbs up. It's much more interesting than what I've heard from her before. But I have to say that "Arrete la, Menina" with Seu Jorge absolutely LEAPS off this album. It's amazing. I stopped and repeated it immediately the first time it finished. Wow!