Los Angeles musician Claude Fontaine is captivated by exotic sounds from far away lands and long ago eras and it shows on her debut self-titled record, released in April. This love was cultivated when she stumbled into a record store called Honest Jon’s that’s known for collecting obscure records from the furthest reaches of the world. Until then, she’d never heard bossa nova, tropicalia, or Brasileira but instantly, she knew it was the kind of music she wanted to make.
The record sees Fontaine teaming up with a slew of incredibly notable guests to complete her vision including Brazilian drummer Airto Moreira (Miles Davis, Astrud Gilberto, Chick Corea, Annette Peacock), Tony Chin, (Althea and Donna, King Tubby, Dennis Brown), Ronnie McQueen (Steel Pulse), Rock Deadrick (Ziggy Marley), Andre De Santanna (Sergio Mendes, Flora Purim), Gibi Dos Santos (Sergio Mendes), Nando Duarte (Gal Costa, Elza Soares), Fabiano Do Nascimento (Mia Doi Todd), and Jaime Hinckson (Hollie Cook, Daniel ‘Bambaata’ Marley).
Our Song of the Day is the bossa nova groover “Pretending He Was You,” which waxes nostalgia over a previous love. Fontaine had this to say about the song: “Sometimes the illusion of a person you once loved is your greatest companion, holding the space in your heart and mind of someone who truly exists beside you, with you wherever you may go. A bittersweet fantasy…”
Watch the official video for the reggae-inspired track “Cry For Another” below.
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