Bio
« The France-based, classically trained pianist and sometime vocalist has issued a large number of recordings of a broad stylistic character since 2005, some of them collaborations (with Salvatore Borrelli aka Harps Of Fuschia Kalmia and Valérie Leclercq aka Half Asleep). Recent projects include an album of piano-and-vocal songs based on Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (Multitudes), a concept album with Half Asleep featuring songs inspired by fictional characters such as Beckett’s Molloy and Zelda Fitzgerald (You’re not mad, you’re just lonely), and a set of jazz-related improvisations recorded with double-bassist Bruno Duplant and clarinetist Paulo Chagas (Onion Petals As Candle Light). » (TEXTURA, September 2012)
Bio (Fr)
Pianiste, vocaliste, improvisatrice et compositrice discrète, fondatrice du label Wild Silence, Delphine Dora est une musicienne touche-à-tout à l’univers inclassable, connue pour ses enregistrements sur des labels confidentiels à tirage ultra limité (Siren Wire, Abaton book Company, Was Ist Das ?, Wild Silence, Fort Evil Fruit, Okraïna, Bezirk..).
Son travail musical iconoclaste, basé sur une approche spontanée de la composition, est nourrie de différentes esthétiques musicales : il y a la mise en voix et musique de la poésie de Walt Whitman et Sylvia Plath, (et d’autres poètes anglo-saxons), du songwriting intimiste, des esquisses «brutes» instantanées dans des langues non identifiées, un disque d’improvisation libre avec Paulo Chagas et Bruno Duplant, des pièces au piano et instrumentales, des expérimentations vocales sauvages…
Dans ses projets récents, elle a revisité tout l’album culte «Folk Songs» de Cathy Berberian/ Luciano Berio avec la chanteuse Eloise Decazes (Arlt), et elle a collaboré avec la musicienne anglaise Sophie Cooper pour un duo improvisé/expérimental basé autour de l’orgue, des percussions, des sons électroniques, du trombone et des voix étranges.
Envisageant la musique dans un mouvement constant et une transformation perpétuelle, mais aussi comme une recherche d’exploration d’une cartographie sonore toute personnelle, elle travaille actuellement sur de nouveaux enregistrements qui explorent de nouvelles directions. Sa recherche musicale récente s’est étoffée et a pris une tournure inédite, s’orientant vers une expérimentation accrue.
Elle a partagé la scène avec des artistes aussi divers que Liam Singer, Lau Nau, Baby Dee, Julia Holter, Marisa Anderson, James Blackshaw, Ashley Paul…et s’est produite en France et en Europe dans des lieux aussi variés que : Brotfabrik (Frankfurt), le Musée Fenaille (Rodez), Espai d’art contemporani de Castello (Espagne), Le Periscope (Lyon), Galerie l’Air du Temps (Clermont Ferrand), Cafe OTO (Londres)…
Bio (eng)
« Instant Classic ! I have no idea what language Dora is singing in – it might be french or it might be not a language but listen to the expression and you know exactly what she is saying. It’s like listening to 19th century-german lieder, except easier to enjoy. Not because the longest track is 2:55. Probably because she is writing for her own voice, and manipulates it effortlessly like a wizard – the best kind of vocalist. The piano is restrained – mostly playing a traditional harmonic rôle to support the voice – allowing the voice a landscape in which to emote all over you. The songs are short, as they have captured a moment. (…) » (Julia Holter – L.A Magazine)
Delphine Dora is a versatile and iconoclast musician from France, a pianist, a vocalist explorer, a composer, singer-songwriter, improviser and performer. She plays also different kind of keyboards (organ, harmonium, synth..), and other instruments such as music tools or objects, or field recordings.
Born in Paris in 1980, she currently resides in a remote and rural village in central of France. After studied classical piano and harpsichord during childhood (from 6 to 15), she started to explore her own style since her 20s. She has developed a unique personal language since more than a decade, producing music that is both raw, idiosyncratic, ecstastic, introspective, adventurous and uncategorizable. Her work diverse — which has explored many music words such as free improvisation, minimalism, experimental music, modern classical, psychedelism and free folk — have been published by labels such as Power Moves Library, Bezirk, Was Ist Das ?, Fort Evil Fruit, Siren Wire, Young Girl Records, Abaton Book Company, Okraïna.
With each recording — that convey different moods and a wide range of emotions, Dora’s continue to challenge herself and invent a style of her own.
Most her albums show an interest of exploration by the fringe of consciousness, the unknown, other realms and mystery. Since a few years, she’s also particularly interested by the settings of poetry into music : she did albums from texts taken from Walt Whitman « Leaves of Grass » or Sylvia Plath ; she has used some literary text of writers such as Samuel Beckett or Sarah Kane.
In her most recent one called « Eudaimon/The Invisible Kingdom », a double album of 30 songs, her most ambitious to date ; she’s made a full and new cycle of songs taken from texts of Kathleen Raine, a british poet whose work had a profund spiritual sense.
She’s the founder of the micro-label Wild Silence label, for her own productions and for the releases of stuff from other musicians, underground or established, of different parts of the globe, such as Thollem McDonas, Powerdove, Mami Wata (Sharon Gal & Andie Brown), Sophie Cooper, Natalia Beylis, Krotz Strüder, Richard Moult, Pefkin, Empty Vessel Music, Susan Matthews, Rainier Lericolais, Monte Isola…In addition to her solo work, she has played and collaborated with a wide spectrum of musicians, from singer-songwriter areas or various improv. spheres.
Recently, she released in 2015 with vocalist Eloïse Decazes, some personal versions of the whole cycle of traditional or folk-inspired songs which Luciano Berio collected and assembled for his wife the singer Cathy Berberian. She had also released the same year, an improvised collaboration session with trombonist and experimentalist Sophie Cooper « Distance Future », recorded in Todmorden Unitarian Church, which was named as one of the top experimental records of 2015 by The Out Door / Pitchfork and best experimental tapes of 2015 by The Quietus. The same year, she was invited by Julia Holter to support some german shows of her european tour. And the next year, she invited her also to perform at le Guess Who in Utrecht, a special program she curated.
She has performed in various venues in Europe and played in various festivals like Tor Fest (Todmorden, UK), Supernormal (Braziers, UK), Copenhaguen Jazz Festival (Copenhagen, Danemark) Fano Free Folk Festival (Fano, Danemark), le Guess Who (Utrecht, Netherlands). She shared stage with artists including Ashley Paul, Marisa Anderson, Josephine Foster, Lau Nau, Baby Dee, James Blackshaw, Aine O’Dwyer, Liam Singer…
