Cyanca.is: conscious, soulful, visionary, laid back, and she has (rightfully) been declared a Charlotte, North Carolina artist you NEED to know. It’s in the comfort she has going to intimate experiences from the stage to share with us tuning in, and in the smooth, soft solidity of her voice.
Made from Scratch Music and Arts Festival came at a time I’d drifted from R&B, even fallen out of my jazz and blues habit. Perhaps to avoid the invocations of pain and promise and potential wrapped up in those runs and melodies. Maybe its just getting wrapped up in living life to seek out the songs we may need, right? But still, some notes, some statements come around and move you, like it’s time for a change or a deeper dive, or new beginning – ready or not.
I felt the above ring true in Cyanca’s performance with Jaguar Summer, and her EP, “The Isle of Queens“, where reflection and advice and questioning and appreciation tear from her tongue and pour from her heart. She lays it all out like it is what it is, and will all be alright; makes you reminisce, shake your head, smile, and run it back.
The start up festival encouraged people to select the lineup, to support the artists they wanted to lift up, so it makes perfect sense that there was a sincere turn out for Cyanca, to return the favor her lyrical and vocal presence brings. Get familiar.
I’m keeping an eye out for her at Dreamville Festival, September 15 in Raleigh. I was pleasantly surprised to see it spring up on my feed earlier this year with an invitation to tag local artists for the lineup this first time around. That spirit, that collective, collaborative mentality is vital – and it feels genuine in North Carolina, where artists are coming together for spaces and projects already, without much of an infrastructure of consistent large-scale festivals (thus far).
Lute, of Dreamville Records, pulled Deniro Farrar and Cyanca in for the Ambitions (Queen City Remix), and you’ll notice Elevator Jay, another Charlotte artist who delivered at Made from Scratch, putting his groove on West 1996 Pt.2.
Check out Cyanca’s mesmerizing first visual, enacted with Lute, “New Phone, Who Dis?”, on our Made from Scratch inspired playlist: Southeast Sounds.
Keep up with Cyanca: @cyanca.is on Youtube, Instagram, Soundcloud and more.
