About
“Modern jazz done very well indeed! Hypnotic wordless vocal lines evoking the freeness of Björk at points, compelling rhythms and bass licks in this intriguing track ‘Dangerous Trees’.”
— Seonaid Aitken (BBC Radio Scotland)
Ariane Mamon is a French-American jazz vocalist, composer, and performance artist based in Glasgow (UK), whose music is highly influenced by Esperanza Spalding and Björk.
Born in Paris, but then later moved to Boston to study jazz vocals at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Mamon has fused her mastery of the voice and skill for improvisation and composition, in creating unique ethereal and electrifying wordless jazz compositions, where she extends her voice as a melodic instrument.
Her music has been featured on Jazz FM, Soho Radio, and BBC Radio Scotland, and on the 2022 jazzahead! “Scottish Jazz Playlist”. She was short-listed for the 2022 Peter Whittingham Jazz Award, and in 2023, she’s been working alongside Nimbus Sextet with performances at Ronnie Scott’s, Glasgow Jazz Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe. She has since performed with her band at Lancaster Jazz Festival, The Hidden Door Festival, and the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, and in notable venues across Scotland such as the Blue Arrow Jazz Club, the Hug and Pint in Glasgow, and the Jazz Bar in Edinburgh.
Her love for jazz composition, classical music, and Brazilian music, in particular the music of Pat Metheny, Jean Sibelius, and Milton Nascimento reflect in her compositional style and process, and are also deeply linked to her spirituality and connection to the Earth.
As an artist, she refers to jazz as a natural ecosystem that she tries to recreate and regenerate in her music.
Artist Statement
I am a sonic painter. I see colors, I hear colors and I translate them into melodies. I craft musical lines, that take shape like vines, intertwining with the tree trunks of jazz harmony.
The way I write music is recreating this life for a space of a few minutes, painting and recreating the eternal and impermanent picture of jazz nature.
In this ecosystem, the drums are the animals, the movement of life; the bass is the roots of ancient trees, grounded rooted, passing secrets in their whispers across lifetimes; and piano and guitar, like the rocks and the wind, are the minerals, rain, sunlight, and weather.
The power of the voice dances in this ecosystem, between the wind and the trees, jumping along with the animals, as a call to belong fiercely in this ecosystem. And harmony takes on its original meaning, that of the balance and beauty between all musical life.