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Black Sesame is vocalist, violinist, songwriter and ex-mathematician, Melissa Cox. Melissa first began writing songs while she was supposed to be writing her PhD thesis; her supervisor pretended not to notice. She continued to write songs after she had (finally) finished her thesis and begun studying jazz performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music; her composition teacher nodded approvingly. So the music drowned out the maths, and now, as Black Sesame, Melissa has completed her debut album, “brink”, which she expects will be released before the end of 2006. “brink” paints landscapes of many colours. The jazz influence is present but understated; probably inevitable considering Melissa has performed internationally as a jazz artist (most recently in Japan and China). But as Black Sesame, it's a darker palette that colours her writing, a palette accrued over years of winters in different cities: stark Edinburgh blue, inner-west Sydney grey, pulsating Bristol black... Outside