IMPORT CD – ZR1904007 – Universe in a Shoebox – Kiki Manders

Notes

With her widely acclaimed debut album Love is yours is mine (2016), Kiki Manders already made a clear statement: she does not fit into any category.

On her newest album Universe in a Shoebox Manders manifests herself again as the creative source of a delicate kaleidoscopic sound world, which skill fully brings musical finesse and sophisticated storytelling together.

Her voice is both powerful and fragile and Manders alternates between improvisation and composition, and always in service of the song.

Universe in a Shoebox contains ten compositions, and almost all of them are written by Manders. They are based on questions about our concept of time and space, and about our different perceptions of reality. “If the universe would fit in a shoebox, how unbelievably small would we human beings be?’, Manders wonders. And with absolute confidence she finds the perfect balance between an melodic poetic world and a flow of abstractness.

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Manders grew up in Venlo in the south Netherlands and graduated from the jazz singing program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. After graduation, Manders moved to New York City to study Poetry and Improvisation. She started writing songs in the dialect from her hometown Venlo while living in New York and recently recorded a selection of them, amongst other compositions, to be heard on her debut album “Love is yours is mine” (Unit Records).

A finalist in the Voicingers International Singers Competition and a semi-finalist in the Brussels Young Jazz Singers Vocal Competition, Manders’ “irrepressible style” makes her an “in demand musician both as a bandleader and as a sideman.” She lent her voice to Amsterdam-based saxophonist Maarten Ornsteins’ avant-garde funkband DASH! and performed with this band throughout Europe, in the Music Theatre production “Spica”, multi-disciplinary theatre performance “Brilliant Limbs” and toured China with the band.

Manders performed and/or collaborated with The Metropole Orchestra, Jim Black, Maarten Ornstein, Oene van Geel, Vince Mendosa, Yuriy Yaremchuk, Jeffrey Bruinsma, Bodek Janke, Phil Donkin and others. She performed at world known venues and festivals such as The Bimhuis, Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, Paradiso, North Sea Jazz Festival, and the Concert Hall Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the Unterfahrt in Germany, the Sziget Festival in Hungary, the Brussels Jazz Club in Belgium, Jazzclub Jazz Dock in the Czech Republik, Jazz Club Dzyga in Ukraine, the Jazz Gallerie in Canada and at the Nanjijng Jazz Festival and the Chengdou Jazz Festival in China.