Juliana Martina - Laman (2023)

I wrote the songs of ‘Laman’ in Spanish and Papiamento, the languages of my childhood. It has a contemporary jazz sound with strong Latin-American and Caribbean influences. This album is a love letter to growing up in the Caribbean, by the sea, barefoot, the sea shore as our glorious playground, and the sun glowing up our skin. Being raised fluent in multiple languages and cultures, each with very different landscapes and intricacies often meant not feeling quite at home anywhere.

That’s challenging when you're growing up, especially when we're in the process of searching for belonging, identity and our place in the world. The merging of different styles, cultures and genres comes very natural to me and I've come to learn that not feeling at home anywhere can also mean I'm at home everywhere, and that's what my music is about. The album has a beautiful balance between energetic grooves, heartfelt lyrics and soulful melodies.