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Open The Door

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Dalia Valanciute

Label: Self Produced
Released: 2023
Duration: 31:37:00
Views: 6

Tracks

Bluesette; If You Could See Me Now; The Island; This Is Always; My One And Only Love; Open The Door; Blue In Green.

Personnel

Album Description

ABOUT THE ALBUM

Open the Door is the debut album of vocalist Dalia Valanciute, a Copenhagen-based jazz artist whose warm tone, clear storytelling, and lyrical sensitivity reflect a musical voice shaped by both tradition and lived emotional experience. Released in 2023, the album is an intimate introduction — a doorway into the feelings, memories, and moments that shaped her early years in jazz.

The title track, written by one of her greatest inspirations Betty Carter, became the emotional center of the project. For Dalia, “Open the Door” symbolized stepping into her own artistic identity — entering the professional jazz world with openness, curiosity, and vulnerability. The song’s bright, eager, almost sunlit feeling became a metaphor for the album itself: an expression of joy, anticipation, and the courage it takes to show who you are through music.

The album moves through a carefully chosen collection of standards, each carrying a personal history. My One and Only Love — a song she first heard at seventeen on a CD mixtape made by her high school boyfriend — still holds for her the essence of young, overwhelming love. “It was the most intimate declaration,” she says. “I remember feeling over the moon. I wanted this recording to carry the same breathless warmth I felt that first time.”

Her version of Bluesette brings out the sweetness and romantic optimism of Toots Thielemans’ jazz waltz. Rather than leaning into virtuosity, Dalia approaches it like a private conversation — offering comfort, positivity, and gentle encouragement, the way one might speak to a close friend. The result is light, intimate, and quietly danceable.

With This Is Always, she turns toward the serenity of long-term love — not the drama of a proposal, but the quiet certainty when two people realize they have found their “forever.” Her interpretation celebrates that stillness and emotional clarity, honoring the lyric’s sense of peaceful commitment.

The album is enriched with a warm, sensual take on The Island, written by Ivan Lins and associated with Sarah Vaughan. Its bossa nova rhythm and lush, poetic lyricism create a vivid escape — a love letter to summer, sunlight, and the dreamy simplicity of a beachside holiday. Lithuanian saxophonist Donatas Petreikis adds depth and electricity to the track, shaping a groove that feels both nostalgic and alive.

Recorded with her long-standing quartet — pianist Laurits Høgel, bassist Mariusz Praśniewski, and drummer Jesper Lørup Christensen — the album balances thoughtful arrangement with intuitive interplay. The musicians share a natural musical chemistry built over years of collaboration, giving each track the freedom and warmth of a shared conversation.

For Dalia, Open the Door is more than a debut. It is a statement of beginning — a promise to herself to stay truthful, open, and emotionally present in every note she sings. “Music is the only place where I feel completely myself,” she says. “I hope listeners feel that too.”

ALBUM CREDITS

Recorded at The Village Recording Studio, Copenhagen, DK
(June, 2022)
Recording Engineer - Thomas Vang
Mixed and Mastered by August Wanngren
Produced by Jesper Bodilsen
Graphic Design - Jacob Ziegler

Album uploaded by Dalia Valanciute