My Starry Eyes Simone Helle

• 1 Bentheim 04:43
• 2 My Starry Eyes 04:07
• 3 Love Birds 02:50
• 4 My Inner Home 04:10
• 5 Let's Face the Music and Dance 04:55
• 6 Let Us Agree 04:14
• 7 This Fragile Love 07:32
• 8 You Must Believe in Spring 04:43
• 9 God Bless the Child 03:58
• 10 Lullaby for a Little Star 02:30
• Total Runtime 43:42

Info for My Starry Eyes

The album combines modern mainstream jazz with gospel and world music influences. The album features well-known musicians such as Olaf Krüger, Carsten Gronwald, Dimitrij Markitantov, Klaus Bernatzki, Thorsten Heitzmann, Cornelia Wolff, Nic Floer, Martin Scholz, Nils Imhorst, Caspar van Meel, Boris Becker and Daniel Sanleandro.

A first album review by jazzreportagen.com speaks of "Hele's nuanced and soulfully used voice" as well as of an "enraptured atmosphere", "truly beguiling and evocative". The entire album review will be available online on the jazzreportagen.com portal from 16.06.23. Hele's mission: to create an album that reflects her life experiences and gives musical space to the themes of an appreciative togetherness. Especially with the title "Let us agree", she expresses how important a common "code" of coexistence such as that of human rights is to enable diversity in peaceful coexistence or peaceful co-existence.

The album was financed, among other things, by an artist grant from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the NRW Corona Aid and a successful crowdfunding.



"Truly beguiling and evocative...really strong...this successful album." (Jazzreportagen.com 6/23)

"The record really has class and quality. Of course, the album lives primarily from the singing and flair of the great jazz artist, who gives the songs weight not only in terms of sound but also in terms of content. ... full of soul, voice and depth." (Musix Magazine 7 /23)

“Your own songs…get under your skin with their haunting, finely nuanced vocals. Strong. But really impressive are three delicately presented standards, such as "God Bless The Child", to which she gives a highly emotional, fragrant new depth. For this alone it is worth discovering Simone Helle and her fantastic album." (Fono Forum 10/23)

Simone Helle, vocals
Olaf Krüger, trumpet
Carsten Gronwald, trumpet
Dimitrij Markitantov, alto saxophone
Klaus Bernatzki, tenor saxophone
Thorsten Heitzmann, trombone
Cornelia Wolff, flute
Nic Floer, piano
Martin Scholz, organ, electric piano
Nils Imhorst, electric piano
Caspar van Meel, double bass
Boris Becker, percussion
Daniel Sanleandro Fernández, drums

Simone Helle
My conviction is that every human being carries a certain energy into the world. This can be rather peaceful and connecting or rather aggressive and separating. Therefore, it seems logical to me that the world changes positively, the more people contribute their very own part to an appreciative interaction with each other within the framework of their individual possibilities, no matter how obvious, small or large this is. With my lyrics I want to create a musical space in which cultural diversity, equality, tolerance is lived, because even today these topics are of comprehensive topicality:

As before, skin color, religion, gender or origin decide on acceptance, peaceful living conditions or even success and whether doors open or close.

Respectful interaction both between people within a country and between states decides whether there is war or peace. On a large scale, this is evident in the flow of refugees and, very recently, in the war against Ukraine. On a smaller scale, children sense very early on whether they (and their families) "belong" or not. Retreats as islands of well-being are manifold. I am grateful that for me this has been music, which has always brought me back to my center.

Somewhere along the way, music faded into the background until a wake-up call brought it back into my life in the proverbial sense. So I owe my first major public performance to a college friend who called me at 4:30 in the morning with the words, "You HAVE to come and sing with my band at our town festival!" At the city festival 500 km away, I felt the power of my voice like a force of nature for the first time! I was overwhelmed by the sensation and the realization "This is exactly what I want and what I live for!" As a singer on stage, I was able to feel a great inner sense of happiness for the first time myself, perceiving that I was seen and accepted!

This inner feeling of acceptance was previously not possible for me in this clarity as a child of two cultures, who felt foreign and did not really belong.

So I used to try to compensate for my different appearance and the feeling of not really being accepted socially by special performance. Out of fear of being rejected or not being allowed to belong, I wanted to please everyone by trying to read others' wishes from their eyes. With an enormous willingness to perform, I also took on other people's tasks, for which I was basically not responsible, to the point of self-sacrifice. At the same time, the demands I made on myself were so great that I could rarely be satisfied with my own performance. All this is enormously exhausting and frustrating in the long run.

Today I know what a great gift singing is for me! I am grateful for this and also for being able to express my canon of values with the help of my singing and music.

Because with my music and my lyrics I can live my musical statements for cultural diversity, tolerance and equality in concerts and bring the associated variety of emotions - as well as joy and lightness - to the outside world!

This is how the concept "Let us agree - a concert project for diversity and human rights" was born. My new album, which is currently being created, also focusses on these themes. I am already looking forward to presenting my new album to you at the end of the year!

This album contains no booklet.