Through the echoes of an acoustic guitar and vocal expressions, Dora Bleu explores intimacy as the place where the capitalist war state replenishes itself. Her work is neither fully compositional nor improvisational. The songs follow an inner sense of narrative time, and are simultaneously tonal and atonal. The guitar is sparse, tense, atmospheric, suggestive of without enacting melodies, sometimes droning or dissonant. The vocals contribute to contrasting compositions filled with stark silences and bent notes. The songs intend to violate the concept of genre, to erupt trauma within storytelling, and to evoke vulnerable and dreamlike states.
Dora has two sets of recordings with Istanbul/Crete resident electric oud player Periklis Tsoukalas (BaBa ZuLa); the first, Cloned From Ash, appeared on Vienna's Feathered Coyote label in autumn of 2018. Dora and Periklis are also currently working on a second set of recordings together. Other past releases include a full length with Tom Carter (Charalambides) and Sam Shalabi (Shalabi Effect, Land of Kush) via Tequila Sunrise and Fire Museum and another on the Nostress Netlabel with Olga Nosova and Alexei Borisov (Notchnoy Prospekt).
Dora’s collaborators for tours, live performances and/or recordings include Alexandre St-Onge, Simon Wickham-Smith, Helena Espvall, Sharron Kraus, Eric Arn, Margaret Unknown, Brooke Crouser, Anton Nikkila, Kiwa Noid, Salvatore Borrelli, and Lisa Gamble. Prior released works featured on labels VHF, Camera Obscura, Fire Museum, Ikuisuus and others. Dora has toured many times in Eastern and Western Europe and on the North American East coast.
Fascism’s Intimacy on Drawing Room Records is Dora’s most recent release and is supported and infused by the work of American guitarist Marc Ribot.
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