Soleil Launches Her First Album on iTunes, Watch The Beautiful Machinima Music Video Debut Track Here

Soleil is the first album from ColeMarie Soleil, and it's now available on iTunes here. (Also available on Soleil's Band Camp page.) Created in collaboration with Tasuku Ghost, my friend Coley often covers the Second Life art scene for NWN, and in my utterly biased opinion, the album is a beautiful synthesis of ambient triphop soundscapes, Ms. Soleil's plaintive, emotionally naked singing, and her evocative, intelligent lyrics. (Think Portishead, but more heartfelt.) Watch the first music video for the album, Second Life machinima Coley created with acclaimed metaverse artist Bryn Oh:

Now let ColeMarie Soleil tell you more about this song, this video, and her plans for the album:

"'Storytelling'", she emails me, "is highly metaphorical, and I would hesitate to explain too deeply what it is about, because what I enjoy about it is the different theories people have approached me with in regards to what they interpret it as. That is what I really love about music. The video itself, though, was inspired by my favorite build by my best friend Bryn Oh (who has helped me and supported me since day one) called "Condos in Heaven." Coley chose Bryn's build because the visuals fit the song, and because it has a story of its own to tell:

"Condos in Heaven is about what might happen should the human race find a physical way to reach heaven, and 'Storytelling' is on one level sort of about what it is like to be human, and the kind of underlying battle that I think many people have and can relate to (but I would not say that is the only message in it.)

"This machinima is only the first of a series of different kinds of styles of videos that will be made for the album. I am looking forward to a stop-motion animation created by a friend of ours (example of her work) that will come out this Summer (and is already in the early stages of creation.) Also, a very talented animator and machinimist (example of her work) has offered to do another video for us around Spring time, so I am really looking forward to collaborating with many different kinds of visual artists on different kinds of projects for the music." She's already started on her follow-up album, too.

Comments

[Kirstenlee Cinquetti]

Cracking Album and the in-world shows were super awesome too!

[Groll Greggan]

I love my Coley! Good job you two!
I´m already looking forward to the next releases! =]

[victoria moore]

Always loved Coleys music videos and talant, go Cole keep up the great work.I love forward to hearing more.

[Chedris]

Being a follower of Cole's work for years, I've been waiting for her album release almost impatiently...
The 1 artist in SL that opened my eyes, and inspired me to at least try EVERYTHING.
Love ya Cole-Kitten

[Harmony Deschanel]

ColeMarie is simply awesome, I've been listening to her for a long time now and to finally be able to own some of her music ... It's a dream come true :)

Way to go Cole \o/

[Bryn Oh]

I really love this album and have been listening to it constantly. Only in SL can two people meet from different sides of the world, with different languages and still be able to work together and come up with something as brilliant as this work. Congratulations Cole and Tasuku.

[Michele Hyacinth]

Cole is such an incredibly talented artist. I am so thrilled for her with her new releases! I don't want to use the word haunting to describe her music and singing and machinima and photos and fashion and other areas of the arts that we probably don't yet know about from Cole. But what she creates stays with you. It really penetrates and lingers. Cole puts her entire soul into what she does, beautifully and intelligently so. And if all that talent isn't enough, Cole is truly an incredibly genuine and nice person. You go girl!

[allMeadow]

There's that unmistakable sound of a world inside a box.. then you feel the bass ripple through your gut. Before you know you're not sure where you are but it feels warm and inviting and somehow familiar. love this!

[Tintosha]

Colie's been really creative from the moment I met her. I knew deep down she had that musical potential to bring forth and show to the people. I am amazed and impressed with her work! : D

[moonbubble]

Im still amazed today, in all work Colemarie does, not only the music and songs but also her vids, they have something very particular and different than so many other good ones around.
Is one talented little fairy and i trully recommend not only hearing her with Tasuku and Soleil but see their shows, behond amazing and magical!
<3

[Silver C.]

Quite the talented sprite <3 She's gone far~~

[cooper]

<3 She's a great person, a great friend, and a beautiful singer.

[Patricia Davis]

Totally awesome... just like the person! Love your music and you girl!

[MenuBar Memorial]

ColeMarie is one of the most beautiful expressions of life in the two inhabitable universes.

[tsk Ghost]

yeah !!!! yeah!!!!! yeahhhhhhhh dance dance in all dreams!!!!

[Bliss Windlow]

The most exciting thing about Cole is that you know this is only scratching the surface of what she is capable of ... she is constantly redefining and exploring her creativity and THAT is amazing to watch. I love her first effort and cannot wait to see where this journey takes her.

[Chestnut Rau]

I love Soleil's album. I love the machinima. I love ColeMarie.

That's all.

[urikoH]

they are one of the most tarented artists in SL
they are going to be not only inworld also world wide artist
blow our mind!!! pop our harts!!
im excitied about thair works YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reyna]

She's got such a beautiful voice :)

Love the album an her shows \o/

[Nico]

Amazingly beautiful, lush music from an amazing person.

[Masami Kuramoto]

Now it's obvious why Soleil was excluded from the reader poll.

You are right, Hamlet, this does look like favoritism. How do you explain this to the other artists who were _not_ spared the misfortune of running against Chouchou?

[Ellie]

Hey, Listen!

Soleil deserves coverage because they're exceedingly AMAZING. Both Cole and Tasuku are two of the most amazing persons I have ever had the privilege to meet.

If Hamlet had included them in the poll - everyone would scream favoritism. So he didn't, but because he gives them coverage because they do something that causes eargasms whenever I hear it; you scream the same thing.

Guys, Buy the album, LISTEN to it. Tasuku and Cole deserve all the coverage they can get because this music is real. I watched them in 2010 for the first time; and wanted to cry and laugh and scream all at once. Their music is intense, it's not like what you find on the mainstream.

It's a special gift to be able to speak to a listener with no words what-so-ever, they deserve the coverage. You guys need to understand that they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.

/rageover

[Masami Kuramoto]

@Ellie

"If Hamlet had included them in the poll - everyone would scream favoritism. So he didn't, but because he gives them coverage because they do something that causes eargasms whenever I hear it; you scream the same thing."

That's nonsense. Hamlet can feature on his blog whatever he likes. But if he can't accept a majority vote against his favorite band, he should not do popularity contests in the first place. Excluding Soleil and then treating them like the winner is just unfair to all the other bands who won't be featured because they lost.

[Miss Static]

Soleil's album just came out and it happened to come out while Hamlet was doing the poll. The two have nothing to do with one another and it was covered due to the release. They had been planning to release it at this time long before the poll was created. This is not related to the poll just because it is a music post. Hamlet has never called Soleil his favorite band either. You seem to put words in peoples mouths.

"Excluding Soleil and then treating them like the winner is just unfair" <-- that is nonsense no one ever called Soleil the winner of anything. This has been covered at other places as well not just on New World Notes. It is music news that is all.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

Is a wonderful thing. Much happiness for Colemarie. May she make many more albums. :)

[Masami Kuramoto]

This contest has ten winners and one loser. I feel sorry for Tasuku. He didn't even know that there was a poll in which he was sidelined.

[Hamlet Au]

Various drama and bile filled comments deleted. I'm going to have one last nomination process for favorite SL artists, so anyone who wants to nominate Tasuku (apart from his work with Soleil) is free to do so.

[Faerie]

I love this album and I think it's only proper that Hamlet blogs something that only came about because of SL. This blog is all about SL news and this is news.

[RayRay]

I have always been in awe of Colie's unique artistic expression and her truly beautiful music. She is a gifted and truly special soul who is as sweet as she is talented.