Lea Maria Fries

Lea Maria Fries, born in 1989 in Switzerland, began with piano before shifting to jazz vocals at 14. From 2009 to 2014, she studied at the Lucerne School of Music under Susanne Abbuehl and others. In 2010, she reached the semi-finals of the Montreux Jazz Festival's vocal competition as its youngest and only Swiss participant. After graduating, she moved to Berlin in 2014, exploring new musical textures for four years with band Vsitor, then settled between Paris and Switzerland, singing in For a Word. Fries has performed with Dutronc & Dutronc, Eric Legnini, and others. In 2021, she launched her first solo project under the name 22° Halo, releasing the album Light at an Angle. Blending jazz, ambient pop, and experimental elements, the album featured an acoustic trio and showcased her ethereal, narrative voice across original compositions and carefully chosen covers. In 2025, she released her first full-length under her own name, Cleo, on the French label Heavenly Sweetness. Recorded with her quartet, it features such guests as accordionist Vincent Peirani and trumpeter Raynald Colom. The album merging contemporary jazz with electronic textures and multilingual songwriting in English, French, and Swiss German. Cleo was ranked at the 49th place in French SNEP Jazz charts.

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