JEANNEL "I C M I B"
JEANNEL’S spiritual quest as a woman, artist and human being
ALL WORDS PROVIDED BY JEANNEL
“I C M I B” is a self-produced left-field R&B Jam, combining samples, organic instruments and traditional songwriting.
It is an ode to opening up,
to nurturing, to the union of opposites. It is an expression of basic human desire and the wish for intimacy and love, the aspiration of every mortal to transform darkness into light. My recent work reflects my spiritual quest as a woman, artist and human being. Femininity in all its facets and deeper meaning became the underlying essence of both my personal and artistic consideration and expression throughout the past years.
My pain, fears and hopes, the processing of struggle and of personal and collective shadows shaped my understanding of inner and outer imbalance in a world that is still suffering from the over- exhaustion of the “male“ principle,
the principle of
competition,
efficiency,
rationality,
the left side of the brain, that works counter intuitive and oftentimes against the flow. It is vulnerability,
openness,
connectivity, but also the reclaiming of the female principle, the slow, the healing principle, that is the driving force behind my artistry. Sexual relationships, the relationship with the self and the universal one mirror the path into light and balance. “ICMIB” is all about that.
Watch the music video for "I C M I B" below:
[JEANNEL ON HOW WE CAN MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE]:
BY FACING OUR DEMONS SO WE CAN LOVE OURSELVES FROM THE BOTTOMS OF OUR HEARTS AND ULTIMATELY LOVE EACH OTHER MORE.
BY SHEDDING THE EGO SHIT
THAT THIS CAPITALIST AND PATRIARCHIC WORLD BURDENED HUMANITY WITH.
I put all my heart and passion out there.
BY BEING OPEN TO THE VULNERABILITY OF OTHERS, BY HOLDING SPACE FOR EACH OTHER, BY BEING NICE TO EACH OTHER, BY CARING FOR EACH OTHER INSTEAD OF COMPETING WITH ONE ANOTHER.
Photography: Fee-Gloria Groenemeyer
Video Director: Felix Aa
ABOUT JEANNEL
Being born highly sensitive and introverted leaves you with ongoing over-stimulation and lots of feelings to process. It is a blessing and a curse that needs to be channelled in the right direction, in order to be let out and not be destructive. In Jeannel’s case that outlet is composing music with multi-layered spiritual charge. Sometimes the lyrics come out as simple as “ICMIB“, sometimes it’s not so simple. Being female in a male- dominated world, where everyone suffers from the over exhaustion of competition, separation, exploitation, rationality and materialism, the gifts of a female incarnation are outshone since quite a while. It is those gifts, that Jeannel conjures up and that keep showing themselves to her, oftentimes disguised by the illusion of disconnection and by anxiety. Understanding her own femininity and the suffering its oppression causes personally and collectively, became the breeding ground for her artistry. It’s the obscure, the intuitive, the demonic, which the nurturing nature of the female principle holds space for, that speaks through Jeannel’s recent work. Healing through wholeness is the aim, one could say. Born into a family of musicians, it is of no surprise, that Jeannel carries on the heritage of artistry and intuitiveness. Jeannel started playing classical cello from the age of seven. As a teenager she began writing her first songs, initiating an artistic journey that would bend genres like insalivated bubblegum, and forming her musical language somewhere between left-field R’n’B, Lo-Fi and experimental Pop. Always in the center of attention is her extra- ordinary voice, with which she sings effortlessly in a both a sultry and mature, skillful and raw way, that many times left her being compared to the likes of Solange or Lana del Rey.
Leaving performing arts school with a degree in Jazz, she went to New York to mingle with the underground music scene, that left her with a huge mark on her artistic quest. She released her Lo-Fi- Indie tune “Mind Tricks“ through SoundCloud in 2016 and quickly gained the attention of Chilly Gonzales, who then featured the track on his radio show „Music’s cool with Chilly Gonzales on Apple Beats 1. It made waves through Spotify Fresh Finds, New Music Friday, IndieShuffle, HighClouds and many more. Not only Gonzales discovered her extra ordinary talent and sensitivity, also the infamous Red Bull Music Academy, that over the years has spawned iconic talents like Flying Lotus, Sevdaliza, Four Yet, Lafawndah and many more, sensed her potential and brought her to the Academy in 2018, where she mingled with artists from all around the globe to be flooded with inspiration and input from free- spirited underground musicians.
Soon after, she started working with Lafawndah Co-Producer Tamer Fahri Özgönenc and released her Debut EP “Noitulove“, which was gloriously reviewed by the likes of Vice and Earmilk, and made it’s way into numerous Playlists including Dummy Mag, Nourish, Godmode and SXSW, where she was invited to showcase 2020. Over the course of the past 3 years, she played support for Nick Hakim, Inc No World, Red Bull Music Festival, Reeperbahn Festival NYC Edition and is now finalising her upcoming EP.