Anyone who has ever seriously tried to sing over a longer distance completely free, unaccompanied, as own clock and only tone provider, knows of the associated challenge. Dominique Fils-Aimé, the Canadian singer / songwriter, does just that with two out of eight songs, the first and last covered song, "Strange Fruit" and "Feeling Good", on her second album. And she does away with this challenge virtuoso and cool, as if this were the most normal thing in the world. Not only does she define thereby the outer borders of her album, but from the very beginning and back from the end she defines the albums inland, its unusual gait, which only allows a Spartan accompaniment of the inland songs with preferably only one single accompanying instrument and more often also with her own looped voice. On the whole, this is a bold approach and largely determines the self-contained, self-centered mood of the album.
Her voice carries the exceptionally soloistic approach with a high degree of flexibility of sound formation and in all, seamlessly connected registers with expressively bright shining tonal colors. This voice needs no effort to express emotion with the required emphasis. Rather, different moods develop apparently completely natural in the context of a calm quiet singing. This peculiarity is probably due to the Haitian genes, 34-year-old Dominique Fils-Aimé inherited from their ancestors. In any case, this alone makes an extraordinary album considering the high vocal artistry and culture, quite apart from the songs made at best with unusual short if any accompaniment
Apart from the cleverly included cover songs, which are powerful in all understatement, Nameless is also an unusual album because of all of the singer's songs and stirring lyrics. The title song, in which the singer is accompanied exclusively by a violin, leaves the strongest impression both vocally and lyrically "Who's out there shouting my name? Do not you know it does not belong to me no more ". In "Sleepy" the guitar takes on the accompaniment role of the violin in "Nameless", albeit with almost equal status. "Home", with its almost lavish, but discreetly acting accompaniment of guitar, double bass and drums, is something like a breach of the album's underlying imperative to accompany the singer's voice at least sparingly as in "Birds" with its exclusive double bass underlining. "Unstated" brings the principle of sparse accompaniment through the violin to a head through the text-free execution of the song.
Although the accompanying musicians are used sparingly, they deserve a mention, as there are Laurence Möller, violin, Étienne Miousse, guitar, Kevin Annocque, didgeridoo, Jean-Michel Frédéric, keyboards, Jacques Roy, double bass and Laurent Saint-Pierre, drums.
The unusually conceived and executed album Nameless of the singer / songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé deserves a strong response from the writing guild and, above all, popularity, deservedly manifesting itself in high sales figures. A true "must have".
Dominique Fils-Aimé, vocals
Jacques Roy, bass
Laurent Saint-Pierre, drums, percussion
Jean-Michel Frédéric, keyboards
Étienne Mioussem, guitar
Laurence Möller, violin
Kevin Annocque, didgeridoo