Wednesday 10 August 2016, 8pm
One of the first UK performances for this enthralling collaboration between France’s Delphine Dora and England’s Sophie Cooper, which draws on piano, trombone and wordless vocals. A session at Todmorden Unitarian Church resulted in the album Distance Future, released on the Yorkshire based “Was ist Das?” label last year – subsequently showing up in The Quietus and Pitchfork’s end of year lists.
“Distance Future’s surrounding ambience reminds me of the holy drones of Charlemagne Palestine and Janek Schaefer on Day of the Demons, but where that record’s power came in clarity, Dora and Cooper’s work is more mysterious—and ultimately something only these two could conjure.” – Marc Masters, Pitchfork
“Distance Future is pure sonic magic, and the strangest part is, we’re never quite sure if we’re heading into, or escaping from the darkness.” – Tristan Bath, The Quietus
Delphine Dora is a versatile and iconoclast musician from France, improvising mostly with voice and piano. She plays also other instruments like keyboard, organ, melodica, glockenspiel.... Her works that explores different musical genres, ranges mainly between piano works, songs based on poetry, or vocal works sung in glossolalia.
Recent projects include the cover of « folk songs » album by Luciano Berio/Cathy Berberian, a concept album featuring songs inspired by fictional characters such as Beckett's Molloy and Zelda Fitzgerald, a Sylvia Plath poems setting to songs (Conversation Among The Ruins), a piano solo record (A Stream Of Consciousness), a set of jazz related improvisations recorded with double bassist Bruno Duplant and clarinetist Paulo Chagas (Onion Petals as Candle Light) and she co-directed a project of improvised songs performed by children (Les Loustics - Les Squelettes).
Besides her solo work, she collaborated with musicians such as Half Asleep, Salvatore Borrelli, Bruno Duplant, Paulo Chagas, Eloise Decazes (Arlt) and she has performed with Lau Nau, James Blackshaw, Baby Dee, Liam Singer, Sophie Cooper, Aine O’Dwyer. She's also the founder of Wild Silence label.
"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
Sophie Cooper is a sound artist who Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (hcmf//) refer to as “A crucial member of Yorkshire’s far-reaching experimental music scene”. Sophie’s practice pivots around new presentations of acoustic instrumentation (primarily the trombone) with electronics, challenging conventions around composition, text placement and performance.
In recent years, Sophie has been particularly interested in publicly engaged, site specific, audio work, often in collaboration with visual artists. She has had work exhibited at The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, Wordsworth Grasmere Museum, Bury Art Gallery, Hereford Courtyard Art Centre and Gallery Frank as well as music venues including Cafe Oto and hcmf//.
Leslie Deere is a London based audio visual artist. She holds a BA Honours degree in Sonic Art under Hugh Davies at Middlesex University and an MA in Communication Art & Design from the Royal College of Art - Acoustic Images pathway.
