Christiane D is best known here as the bewitching frontwoman of Soma Mestizo, a global beat ensemble that put a mix of jazz, funk, blues and hip-hop -- with a didgeridoo -- behind her intense poetic delivery.

The band, which formed in 1996, went strong for a decade or so before the members started branching off toward other projects, including the Afro-Brazilian Deep House side group 3 Generations Walking.

Now, she's stepping out with her first solo record, cryptically titled "Obliquity of the Ecliptic," which, she says, features "songs that have never found a home" in her repertoire. Rather than putting a full band together to rehearse and record them, she offered a diverse list of musicians sketches of the songs and threw them in the studio together, with co-producer John Purse, to improvise and see what happens.

The album was part of a fellowship with the August Wilson Center. The result will be heard at a CD release party Friday at the Shadow Lounge. Here's what she had to say about it:

What is the status of Soma Mestizo and why a solo album now?

Last July, Herman "Soy Sos" Pearl and I decided after 13 years that we, Soma Mestizo, had had a fantastic, off the chain and bizarre run and that it was time to close that chapter in our book. As the founders of the band, we have both been leaning toward other projects, so the end of Soma Mestizo was just following the natural course of our lives. We left the scene the way we came on the scene, from out of nowhere.

Various solo projects had actually been in the works but, for various reasons, fell through and stalled. But the real energy to pursue my first solo is due to a culmination of happenings and thoughts, alignment of the stars?

I had taken a three-year hiatus to deal with life, health and dream of the next steps. I needed the time to ask myself the scary question, "Do I still want/love to make art? Do I still believe art has an impact?" I needed inward time, quiet time, to hear the real answer. The answer: I still love making art, music, but I'm moving more towards songwriting. The solo is a song catalog of sorts.

What does "Obliquity of the Ecliptic" mean, and how does it relate to you?

The axial tilt, obliquity of the planet, the reason for seasons. This began fascinating me when I learned that recent earthquakes and tsunamis had changed the tilt of the planet, changing micro seconds of time -- the quickening.

How does it relate to me? Constant balancing and acceptance of that that won't be balanced. Let's think about personal disasters, consider how outside events, influences, subtly push your center around -- the need to realign and keep on the path despite the chaos within and/or without. The songs are about balance, imbalance, breakdowns.

When you say "songs that never found a home," are these songs that had been in the works for many years?

This album is like a catalog of the process, a synthesizing reflection of where I've been. Some of the songs are at least a decade old, some have only lived in journals with just a hint of the melody, and some were created recently.

At one point, in my musical career, I was writing songs, poems, that would range from jazz to Deep House to Soma Mestizo, and in some unique cases the words to one song would actually fit in all the genres I was working in at that time.

One song, "Undercover," is actually based on a beat that Herman and I created back in 1997, which at that time morphed into Soma Mestizo's "Next Victim" song, whereas songs like "Sick" and "Glass Ceilings," while performed by Soma Mestizo, never quite went any further but still stayed alive in my mind. "In the Air" is an example of a song written on the spot with no changes to the structure. I had returned from a friend's funeral and JP was on the piano and it just poured forth. This was the real beginning of wanting to move toward songwriting and less performing.

What made you want to take this approach to the band and to recording?

Part of moving forward involves moving backward to what you loved, what inspired you in the first place to begin making music. That would be the power of creating something new, all together in one room, improvising and letting structure emerge. To me, this has always been the real power of music that attracted me and kept me engaged.

I didn't want to know where I was going, but knew I would get there anyway. I wanted to be open and free, I wanted all the musicians involved to feel that as well. I didn't want to create something to fit a particular genre, I just wanted to listen to the song calling out and make whatever it would be. Like reading a map in the rain.

Do you feel like you've done some musical exploration here that you hadn't done before?

Building on the foundation of past explorations, what is here is a stretching and pulling on what I have done in the past. The musical exploration is in some ways more subtle, but mainly different because it is solely from my point of view.

The one main exploration was with my voice. I wanted to hear my voice, not how people remembered it or interpreted or want to keep it stuck in a certain style. This involved a lot of opening and trusting it, playing with layers and harmonies, pushing beyond what I have already done or thought I couldn't do.

Who will be in the live band and how will the sound compare to the album?

The live band consists of three musicians who played on the album, Craig "Izzy" Arlet, Chris Belin, Tony "TFunk" Thomas, with the addition of Phat Man Dee and David McKelvey.

Since this is only our second time performing and I usually like to leave that up to the listener, but it will be warmly alive, intense as usual, rocking background vocals or as several have said to me at the First Voice Festival -- 21st-century, world class.