Sonically, the album warps through punk-rock aesthetics, hip-hop montage, rock 'n' roll power and inflections of jazz free-spiritedness. - Kate Magoc PGH City Paper

Sonically, the album warps through punk-roc

13 MP3 Songs in this album (46:43) !
Related styles: Urban/R&B: Funk, Avant Garde: Structured Improvisation, Solo Female Artist

People who are interested in Abbey Lincoln Betty Davis Grace Jones should consider this download.


Details:
CHRISTIANE D
an artist making music...a poet singing songs... a musician doing films...a songwriter spinning text... a visionary on an art journey
In Obliquity of the Ecliptic (OOTE), Christiane D has produced her first solo album. This collection of songs reaches into the very fabric of human experience; struggling to survive, falling from grace, or rising to the heavens.
OOTE is the pull on the planet towards the light of the sun or the darkness of space. The earthâs axis is tilting from high and warm to low and cold, immutable and shifting the cycle of days. Every disaster has shifted the Earthâs balance, causing its spin to accelerate. Indonesian earthquake/tsunami - 2.68 microseconds. Sumatran earthquake â 6.8 microseconds. Chilean earthquake â 1.26 microseconds. Japanese earthquake â 1.8 microseconds.

OOTE is a collection of intimate songs investigating the larger astral influences affecting the human condition. Marking each of these disasters are poetic satellite interludes that transmit and receive subtle signals, tracing the influence of astral changes, connecting the stories.
An enigmatic musical raconteur â... whose lyrics tell unconventional stories in traditional prose or poetic ways; more extreme than the folk ballads of Johnny Cash or Bob Dylan. Leachâs stories are like movies, with scenes set and emotions conveyed through the eyes of the charactersâ¦ââ Justin Hopper, Pittsburgh City Paper

Intimate and human, Christiane D uses her prodigious storytelling skills to narrate human catastrophes: a drug addicted boyfriend; self hate in the mirror; finding the strength despite the disasters; creating inner peace from the stars and space above.

âOOTE speaks timelessly, with a spiritual backbone and genre-bending sound (Leach neologically deems her genre "esque"), but also alludes to our current world with hints of gender politics and class struggle.
Sonically, the album warps through punk-rock aesthetics, hip-hop montage, rock 'n' roll power and inflections of jazz free-spiritedness.â â Kate Magoc, Pittsburgh City Paper
Drawing on the traditions of African-American styles of Jazz, Blues, Funk and Hip-Hop, Christiane D fuses these influences with Rock, Punk, Classical/Opera, world/ethnic music and early Electronica into a multi-genre blend. She has evolved the practices of improvisational jazz to encompass the beats of these diverse genres, creating a layered and unique sound.
Her earliest musical influences came from her parentâs collection of classical and world music. John Coltrane, Weather Report, Willie Colon, Beethoven, Sarah Vaughn, and Flora Purim, are a few of the artists that provided a round the clock soundtrack for her childhood. Using that early exposure, she and her sister built their own music collection of rebellion that spanned Punk, Heavy Metal and Hip Hop: a âvermischungâ (blending) of Black Flag, Judas Priest, Grace Jones, Gang of Four, Kraftwerk, Au Pair, Black Sabbath, Parliament and Public Enemy.

OOTE features an impressive roster of over twenty musicians whose genres span from jazz to heavy metal. Christiane D brought them together for the fist time to create music with only a rough draft to work from. The recordings capture the power of improvisation and magic of spontaneity.
A bright, uncontainable star, in any constellation she found herself in
Ever seeking, Christiane D has experienced a richly varied path. She has worked in an Alaskan fishery, cultivated a farm in upstate New York, and lived in the back road campgrounds of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah.
Her musical career began while studying at CMU in 1986. There she became the bass player for the theatrical Punk Rock outfit the Small Fat Grandmas. Comprised of fellow art student friends; The Small Fat Grandmaâs were known for dressing up as Grandmothers in black trench coats and wigs. After a year of this she decided to dedicate herself to studies and travel and didnât approach music again until returning to Pittsburgh in the 90âs.

In the early 1990s, Christiane D performed in several groups, such as, the Mosquitos, Liz Berlinâs (of Rusted Root) side project; Cusp Worldwide, a street performance poetry group; Urban Aesthetics, a hip hop jazz poetry group and the famed live jazz funk outfit known as the Scratch Poets.

Within a few short years, Christiane D was ready to take on greater challenges, and along with Herman âSoy Sosâ Pearl, founded Soma Mestizo, a band that seamlessly blended world music with a dark sensuality. Along with performing at venues in and around Pittsburgh, Soma Mestizo appeared at the Philly Fringe Festival, the music industry showcase North by Northeast, and created soundtracks for several independent films.

In early 2000, she and Herman worked on a new project creating Afro-Brazilian Deep House music, with New York DJ/Producer MKL. The project later became known as 3 Generations Walking, and featured a mix of Pittsburgh and New York musicians. The music reached a dance market that spanned New York, London, Japan, and Italy.

Christiane D, along with Herman Pearl, continues to work with Indigenous Resistance records, a Global Dub musical project based out of Brazil. All of the songs created and records released are produced to inform the listener of the global plight of Indigenous peoples. The various collaborations have included Asian Dub Foundation, Adrian Sherwood, Chuck D, and the Solomon Island singer, Olovotu.

Pure, Unadulterated, Creativity
A practicing visual artist, Christiane D studied visual art at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Tyler School of Art, and Lehrer Seminar in Switzerland. Her visual work has been exhibited in Digging Pitt Gallery, 709 Penn Gallery, SPACE gallery, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, August Wilson Center Gallery, Garfield Artworks, and the Mattress Factory. She served as curator for the show POWER, the feminine definition of power at Future Tenant Gallery, part of the August Wilson Center's First Voice Festival.
Her play Saffronia: the mulatto slave, debuted at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre in 2006. Another work The Only Good Artist is a Dead Artist, premiered at the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre in 2007 as part of their Black White Festival. She has participated in several plays, such as Nowâ¦or just in General, Don Juan, Katrina, and Celebrate East Liberty and performed as the singing narrator in the Playhouse Repertory's Mother Courage.
She has produced various music events with the Element Five group, received a Sprout Fund grant to produce two MINI m music festivals, and co-produced Listen To This with Brooke Schooles, which brought in the world-renowned spoken word artist Ursula Rucker.
Christiane D is co-founder and former executive director of Sun Crumbs, a trans-cultural multi-arts non-profit. Sun Crumbs mission was to bring Artists and Communities together by presenting, mentoring, promoting and sponsoring the work of Pittsburgh artists.
In 2011, she received an Advancing the Black Arts grant in support of her second solo musical project, ANIMUS. In 2010, she received an August Wilson Center Fellowship in support of the development of OOTE. In 2003, she received a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Fellowship for World/Jazz/Blues musical composition, and in 2002 received Pittsburgh Magazineâs â40 under 40â award. In 2007, along with her peers, she was honored at the New Hazlett Theatre's gala, Celebrating Women in the Arts.

Releases
Soma Mestizo:
Albums: Ergo, Life of a toy, Peepshow, Interim I & II, Silversun ep (Natural Resources records), Nasty Boy, and Telomere.

3 Generations Walking:
Songs: Skin, Moments in Love, Glory, Mohawk, and Feed

Indigenous Resistance:
Songs: Eagle Screaming Red Sky Alight, Tattoo, and Ivere...the land.

Songwriting:
Phat Man Dee: Christiane Dâs songs featured on her two releases, Life just Goes On and Torch of Blue.

OOTE features:
Production by Oyo Ellis, Beau Demonte and Noel Hefele and Herman Soy Sos Pearl.

Guitars: Craig Izzy Arlet and John Purse

Bass: Ketan Bakrania, John mutherfuckin Hall, TFunk, John Purse and Paul Thompson

Drums: Ken Foley, Paul Quattrone, Richard Gartner, Chris Belin.

Piano/Keys: Eubela Bey, Paul Cunningham and John Purse.

MCs: Dane Cosby and Jack Wilson.

Additional vocals: Brian Cummings, Olivia Payne, John Purse, Stevee Wellons (Tambourine).

Additional beat programming: Paul Quattrone and Eric Yeschke.

Satellite Soundscapes (Monotron, samples and keyboard) created by yours truly, Christiane D.