GABI HARTMANN - The Woman with Salt Eyes | 2LP

Gabi Hartmann embodies the unconventional world of an artist who blurs the lines between pop, folk, jazz, soul, and world music. She sings what inspires her in several languages, defying categorization. She has successfully established her unique style, as well as her ambiguous emotion: a voice with a warm and clear timbre, at once gentle, melancholic, and soothing. Her eponymous debut album, released in 2023, has been streamed over twenty million times and sold more than 15,000 copies (the best-selling Jazz/World album in France that year), earning her the Gold Disk Award for Best International New Artist in Japan, as well as significant acclaim in the French and international press, and selling out multiple dates (at Francofolies de la Rochelle, La Seine Musicale, and La Cigale). Today, Gabi returns with her second album titled La femme aux yeux de sel (The Woman with Salt Eyes). This album opens with a lullaby that tells the story of a woman named Salinda, an inhabitant of a dream island, whose salt eyes melt with every tear shed. To heal her eyes, she embarks on a journey in search of the secrets of salt. Could the album be a small mirror of this tale? Gabi discovers and grows through the songs, learning to know herself by questioning both the world around her and her inner world, as well as her life experiences as a woman. Above all, she tells her emotions: the joy of her travels and the difficulty of opening up to others, the melancholy that stalks her, the anger at a sick world, suffering, anxiety, and then the wonder of nature that heals her. She draws inspiration from female artists: Salinda is inspired by the Rumba des îles from Marguerite Duras' film India Song (composed and arranged with Oan Kim). She pays tribute to Latin American music, particularly to female voices such as Mercedes Sosa, but also to the South African singer Miriam Makeba, who has inspired her for years. Finally, this album is the result of beautiful collaborations, both old (Oan Kim and Jesse Harris) and new: Syrian flutist Naïssam Jalal can be heard on the track Le lever de Soleil (Sunrise), questioning the state of the world. This track, like Love High and Ton monde secret (Your Secret World), was composed and produced with saxophonist and composer Laurent Bardainne (who has collaborated with Camélia Jordana, Jeanne Added, and November Ultra). We can also recognize the creation of Baptiste Trotignon, with whom she composed the track Mélancolie, magnified by the emotion and elegance of the string arrangements by Brazilian composer Maycon Ananias. With her latent melancholy and her universe rich in colors and rhythms, Gabi gradually blurs the boundaries between eras and styles to create a dreamlike world of her own. This is the secret of this personal, multifaceted, demanding, and accessible album.