Zera Vaughan releases new album

Poetic, hypnotic and transcendent: The New Seed, the second CD from singer and songwriter Zera Vaughan, is a rich sonic tapestry of electronic beats and transfixing melodies. Created with the noted French producer/composer Cyril Morin with an international cast of musicians, the spacious sound is a sparkling showcase for Zera’s confiding vocals. The New Seed is available on iTunes for $10.99.

“Cyril totally produced the album,” says Zera. “I come from classical music, so I was used to singing very loudly with a great deal of technique. Cyril didn’t want me to sing that way. He asked me to say things, to interpret with simplicity, to be intimate. I got it – the vocals had to be sincere and real.”

While her debut CD, Back to the Roots, was a global excursion, Zera says that New Seed reveals another direction. “My first album was more of a world music vibe. This album is more Americanized, more down to earth – very simple chords, and very simple words. I also wanted to express thoughts about the environment. Water and air are the most important elements in our existence. I’m afraid we’ve stepped aside from the main thing in life, which is respect. With my song ‘Release the Chains,’ all of the proceeds will benefit Greenpeace.”

Born to a Tunisian mother and an English father, Zera, raised between two cultures, studied classical and Middle Eastern music, opera, and ballet, and acted in plays and musicals before she began performing American pop standards, blues and jazz in clubs. Studies in music at the Paris Music Conservatory and Psychology at the Sorbonne alternated with studio sessions in France. It was on holiday in London that Zera first experienced the orchestral electronic trip hop of Tricky, Portishead and Massive Attack, influences that would become, she says, “building blocks for the music that I had been hearing in my head.”

Live performances are a significant part of her artistry, but even with her theatrical background, Zera notes that her new music requires another approach altogether. “It’s like when you say a poem you can’t dance and move all over the place. I want to connect with my audience by watching them and sharing an emotion. But I love to be onstage – it’s my little moment of showing off!”

The lyrics to Zera’s songs usually occur to her in the night. “I can’t sleep. I have to release the words and melodies. Sometimes the first draft is overly complicated, and then I simplify and polish it. If I compare it to a sculpture, it’s like carving apiece of rock. That’s what I am doing with the words and the notes.”

In Hebrew, the world “zera” signifies “seed,” which inspired the title The New Seed. It is against a soundscape of harmony and hope that Zera Vaughan imagines an exquisite harvest.