Monday 6 July 2015, 8pm
A welcome return to OTO for Portland-based composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Marisa Anderson, who's last visit to OTO was part of a stunning Mississippi Records showcase last September.
“Anderson’s playing is heartfelt and utterly American- free from grandstanding and steeped in respect for the old tradition.” – The WIRE
Marisa Anderson is a composer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon who works both solo and in beautiful tandem. Inspired by Delta blues, West African guitar, country and western radio from the 60′s and 70′s, gospel, noise, rhythms, cycles, mortality, and praise. Featuring an impressive 12 improvisations for guitar and lap steel Marisa has released two albums on Mississippi. In the past two years, Anderson’s music has landed her slots with artists including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, The Devil Makes 3 and Sharon Van Etten.
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
