Cecilia Noel loves her music -- and it shows!

    Cecilia has brought the energy and passion of her stage show to her new album, Delivery... The SalSoul Experience, due out the beginning of November.

    "SalSoul is a combination of Latin Rhythms -- mostly Cuban -- with funk and soul and hip hop," explains Noel, who produced the album under her own Wild Clams Records label. Featuring ballads like "Bolero de Salon" and "Rain" to fun, sensual songs such as "Monkey" and "Mambo!," the album is clearly the essence of the performer.

    "My approach was very honest," Cecilia says. "I wanted to do the record the only way I knew how to do it: to get the band in the studio, and get the best energy out of them.

    "I know every little thing that is played in my music. And when there is something new, I turn around, and the musician that is doing something good or bad knows that I am listening. That's where the respect really grows. Everyone [in the band] really truly loves each other and respects the music and loves the songs."

    Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams, a west side favorite, just finished a long Thursday night stint at Scruffy O'Shea's in Marina del Rey, and will move the show to The Dragonfly in Hollywood starting November 16.

    A musician since childhood, Cecilia was born in Lima, Peru. Memories of growing up cultured -- studying books and learning about her heritage -- in such a repressed country were less than comforting. "I loved the country, but people outcast me," she shares. "My mother saw me suffering when I was very young."

    Cecilia's mother, Menina Pereira, a designer for a prestigious ballet troupe, sent a young Cecilia to top music schools in Germany and Argentina, where she studied violin, piano, and voice. "My mom was my first fan," Noel says. "I'm fulfilling the dream she had -- to get me out of there."

    Cecilia has dedicated the album to the memory of her mother.

    Noel has been in the United States for 17 years, and has been performing with The Wild Clams for the past five.

    When Cecilia first came to the United States, she moved to New York, where she added dance and acting to her extraordinary talents. Soon, Cecilia started working as a studio singer, performing jingles for companies such as The Gap, Coca-Cola, and Sergio Valente, and established herself as a Broadway performer. She briefly toured as a dancer with Menudo, and began a regular stint at the Rainbow Room in New York City.

    However, moving to Los Angeles is what brought Noel's compositions to the forefront.

    "I always feel that I have a lot to say with a song," Noel explains. "Rain" was the first song I ever completed. I had just moved to Los Angeles; it was the big drought of 1989. I felt desperate. I was living in the Valley. Everything was dry; everything looked ugly.

    "I had come here to do this project, and I was trying to write songs. I was working on a song called "Indian Love."... I was on my bed, and it was like a vision. It was like the roof opened, and this ray of light came down upon me. And this song came to me. "Mercy on my people. Mercy on my soul." It was a prayer, because I was scared. I was thinking about my mom, and I was thinking about my ancestors. "Rain" is like my first baby. It was a beautiful experience."

    In addition to the vocal work she has done on "Rugrats," "Santo Bugito," and "Spice City," Cecilia even has a site on the World Wide Web at (www.wildclams.com).

    "Every day a new thing develops," she says. "I love my work. I'm very focused in my career."

    And it shows.