Ilene’s album Plume
Voted best folk album 2024
by the editors of Paris-Move and Bayou Blue Radio
June 20, 2025 – France – Montpellier – Mi Barrio
Date: May 24, 2025- H-Wines Montgomery TX
Date March 29, 2025 – H-Wines Montgomery TX
Date: February 8, 2025 – H-Wines Montgomery TX
Ilene Martinez is supported by Bayou Blue Radio
Saturday, November 16, 2024, 5 pm
For artist Violet Jen’s show, I will perform a few songs from my new album “Plume” (chosen by Violet)
At the North Houston Art Gallery & Gift Shop
14259 Liberty Street
Montgomery TX 77356
Friday, June 20, 2025, 8 pm
with Maxime Perrin and Olivier Cahours
and visual artist Olivier Popof
At Mi Barrio
14 rue plan d’Agde
Montpellier, France 34000
(Reservations recommended!)
PRE-ORDER digital format
Plume
Ilene Martinez
Available October 1st, 2024
download English presskit – download French presskit
Ilene Martinez – PLUME – by Alain Hiot
In 2019/2020, Ilene Martinez graced us with a decidedly folk-leaning album, Reasons (review here), but for this new release, she has resolutely returned to jazz, thus surprising many listeners. Crafted during the confinement period, this latest opus exudes at every turn an irresistible yearning to return to the United States, her native land.
The album comprises thirteen elegantly stripped-down tracks, on which Ilene delivers her captivating voice—a voice that seizes you instantly—masterfully accompanied by Maxime Perrin, whose accordion is omnipresent throughout Plume. Guitarist Olivier Cahours, clarinetist Samuel Theze, and Mickael Gashe, whose trumpet delightfully evokes the timbres of a certain Miles Davis, further enrich the sonic landscape. Go watch the video for Melt on YouTube, and you’ll be utterly convinced!
This is an album few might have expected, and therein lies the originality of this singular artist. Now residing in Texas after spending nearly twenty years lighting up stages across southern France, Ilene Martinez seems to have rediscovered her roots. We can only hope she will gift us with more works as remarkable as this one.
Alain Hiot
Ilene Martinez – PLUME (English review)
by Frankie Pfieffer (editor in chief – Paris-Move)
Ilene Martinez left France to return to the States, and her departure brings a touch of melancholy that this new album reinforces even more. During the Covid lockdowns, she wrote and composed quite a few songs, always with just guitar and voice. A musical interlude outside of time, outside of that strange period of enforced confinement. To write, compose, play, and make the songs live and bleed, to offer an ode to resilience and hope that resonated with artists and musicians during the pandemic.
Album “Plume” first review in France on “JAZZASEIZEHEUR”
The singer ILENE MARTINEZ is releasing a new CD, ‘Plume’, on October 1st, with music that draws as much from folk as from jazz, in the vein of Joni Mitchell or Rickie Lee Jones. After a careful listen to this recording, which you can find on all platforms, I can assure you that the lady has quite a sample of talents, which are revealed throughout the album’s tracks.
The three tracks I prefer are:
Saint-Mars
Going Bananas
Prowling
I hope we will have the pleasure of seeing her on tour in France soon.
Jean-Luc Martin
REASONS
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