EL5 — Kalya Ramu & André Valério
TORONTO | Jazz and visual artist explores the bittersweetness of heartbreak in new single "Hold Me Close"
WORDS BY MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK
COVER ILLUSTRATION BY KALYA RAMU
I hit a bit of a lucky streak when I started this publication (then called smART Magazine) in the summer of 2020. And one of those lucky finds was the work of Toronto-based jazz artist and illustrator Kalya Ramu. I had found her first through her music, but was similarly impressed by her work as a visual artist. The style of her portraiture — one that I loosely describe as a sort of rustic elegance ─ is one that’s been instrumental in helping to articulate the aesthetic of this publication for the first twelve issues:
Initially, the prospects of an art magazine that catered both to the visual and performing arts seemed dim, but there are artists whose output regularly reminded me of why cultivating a more omnivorous appetite in the arts is important. Kalya is certainly one of them. Her illustrations of a few of the jazz artists we’ve interviewed for our Ellington series (including Samara Joy) carry an extra specialty as they’re the few instances where an artist is engaging her expertise across two very different art forms. Last month, she released a single with guitarist André Valério, and flutist Rob Christian, titled “Hold Me Close”. Following last year’s “Algo Contigo”, it’s the second such collaborative fusions between Kalya’s retro-jazzthetic and Valério’s bossa nova and samba-infused compositions.
Kalya and Valério came together for an artist-on-artist session ─ a format you’ll be seeing more of across Cannopy ─ and dissected the anatomical layers of “Hold Me Close”. Going back to the inception of their creative duo, and the introduction of Christian’s woodwind layer, they likewise discuss loose path towards a possible album in the future—and the beauty of just enjoying these one-off singles in the moment.
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