No more secrets: I’m a huge fan of Dominique Fils-Aimé. And I’m even more so now, following the release of My World is The Sun, her fifth album, which is also the second album in her second trilogy. The lady loves symbolic numbers. The title of her fifth album has…five words.
This new offering follows Our Roots Run Deep, an album largely based on her voice, which, thanks to the magic of the multitrack studio, was layered with a multitude of harmonies. The live version of that album was more rhythmic, featuring more instruments. It seems to me that, for My World is The Sun, Dominique and her producer, Jacques Roy, have found the perfect balance between these two approaches.
The album opens with a gentle song in French, accompanied by guitar, performed by Dominique Fils-Aimé’s mother. She discovered the song, recorded on a cassette from the 1970s, and wanted to pay tribute to her mother, who is a doctor. At the end of the album, Dominique presents her own version of this short song.
Between these two versions, the singer takes us into a hypnotic, emotional, and subtle universe, where all the pieces flow seamlessly together. More rhythmic and complex moments alternate with gentler, more meditative passages. One of the highlights of this album is Rhythm of Nature, a long, nearly nine-minute introspective piece where voice, trumpet, percussion, and bass engage in a skillful dialogue.
The various accompanying instruments, violin, trumpet, brass, keyboards, guitar, are very skillfully balanced by Jacques Roy, who plays an essential role in this creation, while also handling the electric bass and the double bass.
As a bonus, there’s a rendition of Francis Cabrel’s Je t’aimais, je t’aime, je t’aimerai. Why not? But My World is The Sun is first and foremost a celebration and reinvention of Black music. This is the essence of Dominique Fils-Aimé’s project, which you’ll soon be able to hear as part of an international tour that will be stopping here.
