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JOE SENT ME [Daou Records], 2009 
Glen Boyd [aka The Rockologist]: The Women Who Rocked My World - "When it comes to pure out and out eroticism, no one has ever communicated this as perfectly as Vanessa Daou did on her tragically slept on, Erica Jong-inspired album Zipless. And this is the point where I guess I apologize for taking you through a personal mix-tape of my own fantasies. But hell yeah. Damn, would I like to get with a girl like this. On the other end of Vanessa Daou's pure sexuality, lies the innocent pre-"Cloudbusting" romanticism of Kate Bush..." Blog Critics She Owns The Night: Vanessa Daou Interviewed 
jonny mugwump talks to the New York based songstress about speakeasies, rave culture and the poem/song divide "Cut to 2009, with a succession of always morphing productions exploring a weird ambient hinterland between ambient pop, jazz, soul and electronica, Vanessa returned after a hiatus, polymath-like moving into multimedia production, dance, computer coding and the release of her first self-produced album Joe Sent Me. "Joe Sent Me" was the coded phrase used to gain entry to speakeasys at the height of prohibition-era America and her latest work is both more sonically sophisticated and spacious yet also more dreamy. Each album has always had a loose kind of thematic concern but Joe Sent Me is different, creating a gently strange portal between now and then, constructing a distinctive world of its own but without sacrificing the depth of insight into what makes a heartbeat. Perhaps it's not immediately obvious but I've always thought of your music as being quite surreal, primarily (until the current album anyway) due to your vocals. The voice is so intimately placed in the mix so that's completely inside the listener's head, and it puts me in mind of the beautiful paradox of the microphone and people like Frank Sinatra where a vocal can sit clearly on top of music that would otherwise completely obliterate it. Vanessa Daou: When I first started singing, for me, it's this weird communication between a singer and a microphone. It's this object that is conveying your voice but the experience of being in a sound proof room singing a song, it is surreal - you're cut off from the music that's being played in your headphones and singing in to this object. Right from the offset, well, I had to work out what the relationship was with this object - the microphone - so I visualise it as an ear. I'm singing into an ear and I still carry that image with me now when I sing, never forgetting that I'm not singing out to the air but that I'm singing into somebody's ear who will be receiving my...message. This relationship, I don't know if it's a metaphysical thing that every artist goes through, but it's very profound." read full interview @ The QUIETUS  
Weird Tales for Winter: Newsletter #10 "I first encountered Vanessa Daou in the strangest of situations. I had been aimless and adrift for a few years in Manchester in the north of England. In fact, I'd been forced to abandon Manchester for the vacant industrial satellite town of Bolton as I made a final attempt at finishing a bachelors in Philosophy. A shopping centre had been opened- pure chrome and harsh electric light, a giant bunker, a 'designer' fortress dropped in the abandoned heart of Salford. The launch and subsequent management of the centre had been entirely botched so that my 10 hour shifts would involve contact with only 10 customers a day (and that was on a good day). Nobody ever showed. I spent nearly 2 years in a bleakly over lit trance- you see, I have my reasons for obsessing about Ballard. There was a music store there specialising in discounted music - the usual array of budget classics, nothing unexpected - no surprises. One day, bored to the point of dementia, I wandered off my patch to leaf through the same cdÕs just for something to do and this one fortuitous time, I found a new neon-blue artefact staring back up at me. Zipless by Vanessa Daou. I recalled seeing something favourable about it in The Wire magazine. There was one copy, it looked out of place, surely some mistake... A collaboration between New Yorkers Vanessa and her then husband Peter with words adapted by Vanessa from Peter's aunt Erica Jong, Zipless is a beautiful trove of sublime erotic electronic pop. And as anybody who loves pop music knows, there can be more subversiveness in the space of a 3 minute adrenaline shot of pop than in vast swathes of avant-garde investigation. What gave the album an edge was the sheer surreal intimacy of Vanessa's voice and delivery - like an Yves Tanguy painting, every vocal shape seemed to take on an alien quality - strange and familiar all at once. Cut to 2010, with a succession of always morphing productions exploring a weird ambient hinterland between pop, jazz, soul and electronica, Vanessa has moved into multimedia production, dance, computer coding and released her first self-produced album Joe Sent Me, a strange riff on the speakeasy that spirals into explorations of love and loss... Tonight's penultimate Weird Tale is a gothic tone poem from a wintry New York City- a blurring of song, poetry, sound with her trademark intensely soft intimacy. You can check Vanessa's own web hub for the Weird Tales series here. I look forward to joining you at the witching hour..." jonny mugwump Vanessa Daou: Love Among the Shadowed Things New poetry, sound & music for 'Weird Tales for Winter', a collective radio series curated by Jonny Mugwump for his always mind altering Exotic Pylon radio show on Resonance 104.4 FM  Broadcast January 31st 2010 Total playing time 30 minutes Other featured artists contributing to the hauntological dream project"':
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 Welcome to the Daouhaus: A Conversation with Vanessa Daou by Collin Kelley "Jazz. Pop. Trip-hop. House. Spoken word. Vanessa Daou has put her unmistakable voice to all these genres, but many clubbers also know her as a dance icon thanks to floor-fillers like "Surrender Yourself", "Near the Black Forest", "Two to Tango" and "A Little Bit of Pain." From the beginning of her career with former husband/producer Peter Daou as part of The Daou to her solo success in the '90s, Daou has been a favorite with DJs and remixers, especially Danny Tenaglia. Coming off the success of her latest album, Joe Sent Me, Twisted Records has just released a compilation called Daouhaus: The Classic Remixes< . even of Tenaglia's reinventions are here, alongside deep grooves by David Morales, Olive and Mood II Swing. The album opens with the 1992, fourteen-minute opus that is Surrender Yourself, which rocketed to the top of the Billboard Dance chart and heralded a new direction for club music, bringing it from the underground to the mainstream."  Daouhaus:The Classic Remixes Daou Records in conjunction with Twisted Records: A compilation of Vanessa Daou's most sought-after and beloved mixes by Danny Tenaglia, David Morales, Olive, & Mood II Swing - Includes some rare & never released material. Exclusively on Beatport  etienne daho presente.... A selection of songs selected and compiled by Etienne Daho with: Peter Doherty, Antsy Pants, The Last Shadow Puppets, Vanessa Daou, The Wave Pictures, Jeremy Jay, Goodbye Simone, Jeffrey Lewis, Pacific! , Girls, Music Go Music, Dirty Fields, Coming Soon, Stilts Hook, Howard Hughes, Mr. Ward, Violens, Sin FAng Boil, Brisa Rock, Phoenix.  "On her sixth studio release, the self-produced Joe Sent Me, the songstress attempts to explore the nuances of language and poetry, building the sonic structures around vocal collages of poems, phrasings and stream-of-consciousness thoughts that all refer to the compositions of love, both destroyed and renewed. Joe Sent Me is also Daou's most musically adventurous effort yet, employing the use of guitar and other live instruments such as brush wires, upright bass and brass. "Opening with a menacing scrape of guitars, "Manifesto", the album's first track, gives way to a robust, near-hip-hop beat under the support of a rumbling bassline. The temperature of both exhilaration and desire rises right around the time Daou sings, "You're a sexy gun," during the very moment a high-hat kicks in. The vocals are buried deep in the mix and give the impression that they were recorded under a suffocating heap of blankets, amplifying the sense of claustrophobia inherent in the song. Meanwhile, the electronicized cabaret-stomp of "Black and White" unfurls in a silver spray of ghostly piano licks and burlesque horns. In addition to being the album's most accessible track, it also features some of the most inspired lyrics Daou has ever penned." PopMatters 
Sultry Siren: An Interview with Vanessa Daou - by founder Chloe Jo Berman
"We were introduced to gorgeous Vanessa Daou via her Zipless, her seminal 1994 record. Zipless, a sexually-charged, feminist collection of pieces inspired by the work of her husband Peter's aunt, the poet/novelist Erica Jong, has been touted as the ultimate sex record. world-over. In fact, we think it (much like kombucha, good red wine, or a little smoke-age) is a serious aphrodisiac - download it on itunes asap. Or at the very least watch the video for the single "Near The Black Forest." Vanessa's early underground success brought her to the attention of Columbia Records/Sony which signed her to a seven album record deal in 1992. Together with her then musical partner, producer and husband, Peter Daou, on piano, the pair recorded as THE DAOU and released their debut album, HEAD MUSIC in 1992." Read full interview @ The GirlieGirl Army  "WEST WINDSOR Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College "Joe Sent MDE," a dance performance featuring the music of Vanessa Daou. May 16 and 17. $10 to $14. Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road. kelseyatmccc.org (609) 570-3333" New York Times  Just say that Joe sent you: The backroom aural sex of Vanessa Daou by Imran Khan "On an album where grime and elegance rub shoulders, Daou fosters a musical space where her electro-grooves and acoustic set-ups coalesce. Daou's ghostly vocals billow and swirl like a thick, phosphorous dream; they don't so much inhabit the songs as haunt them, spilling over into sonic atmospherics. "Proving she can still sway the masses on a dancefloor, Daou showcases her knack for serious beats. Replete with a horn section sounding from beyond the grave of some red-light district of yore, the track Black & White throbs like a palpitating heart, cellophane-wrapped in a punchy synth-glam sheen. It also sports one of the spikiest f*ck-off lines to ever grace a pop song. "Here's the pen you gave me to write my poetry; I said I'd give it back to you the day you stopped inspiring me." "On Hurricanes (a track indebted to the avant-garde poetry of Anne WaldmanƑ, the cut-up phrasings of Daou's mosaic poem languidly plays catch-up with the percussive loop of a hand slapping the thigh. It's a album of jazz, for sure, but the aesthetic at work here is almost punk; sound and poetry are layered like graffiti."  "Electronica, smooth jazz, drum-and-bass. Poet, chanteuse, painter. Vanessa Daou is one artist who thrives on not being pigeonholed. The New Yorker returns with the self-produced Joe Sent Me, her first album since 2001's Make You Love. The absinthe-inspired trance of Daou's vocals is married to the rhythmic typewriter on "Hurricanes," where she steps forth as the sultriest person at a beat cafe. "Black & White" has a constant nightclub piano tinkering in the background that suits her breathless singing in a higher pitch. On the title track, Daou seizes listeners with her chiming "strange days" over the interlacing of jazz and electronica. Continuing to morph her artistic approach with minimalism and spoken word, Joe Sent Me is a comeback for Daou that ought to be celebrated. Daou's sixth solo album is currently available on daourecords.com before its wide release." David Byrne, Windy City Times "From start to finish, it was a perfect day at Mercer County Community College! Academic Theatre Program Instructor Alex DeFazio & I began the day with a great interview by Rachel Katz who hosts the dynamic 'Views & Voices at WWFM, a classical music public radio station that operates out of Mercer County Community College. Streaming audio of interview with Rachel Katz here.
Professor Haywood & those at WWFM are shaping an immensely innovative and important program, one that reaches out to Trenton & beyond in a broad minded and allnbsp;inclusive way, a model for radio stations everywhere that seek to educate, influence & inspire their audience as well as entertain. Read more about Jazz on 2 here. Streaming audio interview with Alvyn Haywood here. "Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, WWFM, The Classical Network of MCCC, has embarked on a new venture - the launch of a jazz station called "Jazz On 2." The station airs on 89.1 HD2, which is one of 89.1's new digital channels. Programming is locally produced in part, as well as in collaboration with WDUQ in Pittsburgh, made possible by the college's recently added membership affiliation with National Public Radio." read more
"Choreographed by dance faculty Janell Byrne, with guest choreography by Jody P. Person and others, Joe Sent M.D.E. features music from Daou's new album, Joe Sent Me, which she named after a code-phrase that was used to gain entry into Prohibition-era speakeasies. Daou says the album is about "the transmission of ideas through time, the secret ranges of the voice, fleeting nights of love and desire, the archiving of dreams, memory, and the imagination." Joe Sent M.D.E. transforms Daou's ideas into a suite of dances constructed around the central metaphor of the album - to discover "secret codes", in a language of the body, that will open doors into illicit paces of rebellion and abandon." Kelsey Theatre E/poster.jpg) "The Mercer Dance Ensemble features a group of MCCC's [Mercer Community College's] most talented students and alumni, plus some special guests. This year's concert will be a landmark collaboration between the Mercer Dance Ensemble and critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Vanessa Daou. "Choreographed by dance faculty Janell Byrne, with guest choreography by Jody P. Person and others, Joe Sent M.D.E. features music from Daou's new album, Joe Sent Me, which she named after a code-phrase that was used to gain entry into Prohibition-era speakeasies. Daou says the album is about "the transmission of ideas through time, the secret ranges of the voice, fleeting nights of love and desire, the archiving of dreams, memory, and the imagination." Joe Sent M.D.E. transforms Daou's ideas into a suite of dances constructed around the central metaphor of the album - to discover "secret codes", in a language of the body, that will open doors into illicit paces of rebellion and abandon." Kelsey Theatre "The Academic Theatre and Dance Programs at Mercer County Community College are hosting a campus visit by #1 Billboard Dance Artist Vanessa Daou on Friday, March 27 at 12:30 p.m. The community is invited to join Ms. Daou for a Q&A session in the Studio Theatre (CM 122), located next to Kelsey Theatre on the college's West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. The event is presented free of charge. In further collaboration with the MCCC Theatre and Dance Program, Daou's music will be featured in "Joe Sent MDE," a performance by the Mercer Dance Ensemble, composed of MCCC Dance students and dancers from the community. The event takes place on Saturday, May 16 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 17 at 2 p.m. at MCCC's Kelsey Theatre. The show is choreographed by MCCC dance instructor Janell Byrne with additional choreography by Jody Person." Broadway World "Q&Daou - This May, the Dance Program at Mercer County Community College will collaborate with the Mercer Dance Ensemble to present the world-premier of Joe Sent M.D.E., a program of original dances set to music from the new album by acclaimed singer-songwriter Vanessa Daou." Elixir Theatre Blog  The Daou of Poetry: A conversation with musician and poet Vanessa Daou By Collin Kelley @ Ouroboros Review 
NEWS, REVIEWS, BLOGS, RADIO... "On an album where grime and elegance rub shoulders, Daou fosters a musical space where her electro-grooves and acoustic set-ups coalesce. Daou's ghostly vocals billow and swirl like a thick, phosphorous dream; they don't so much inhabit the songs as haunt them, spilling over into sonic atmospherics." Inside Entertainment, Canada "Joe Sent Me is amazing. The music reminds me of Miles Davis' score for Elevator to the Gallows, and the spoken word element is really strong here; much more so than on the other records." Collin Kelley/Ouroboros Review [D]reamy female vocals caught in an electro space age vortex." Codesignal Exoticpylon.com is a radio show based in the UK [Resonance 104.4 FM - London's Arts Radio Station] - Host Jonny Mugwump brings the listener into his strange and darkly beautiful resonance every week, saturdays 9:30 PM. You can hear songs from JOE SENT ME here and here. Phone interview with Jonny coming soon... Video interview [below] by Alexander McLean of Rockyoumentally, the visual wing of the DVD project "Under your skin". A segment of the interview will be included in Alexander's forthcoming and sure-to-be seminal project. Best Of 2008 - "Sensual and poetic texts, languorous electro-jazz of an almost palpable softness, Joe Sent Me feel is a small marvel in its genre." Discordance, France "If Louis Malle were alive and making films, this would be the soundtrack. I am instantly transported to the streets of Paris and Jeanne Moreau is walking in the rain whispering je t'aime...je t'aime..." Collin Kelley: Modern Confessional "The Mercer Dance Ensemble features a group of MCCC's [Mercer Community College's] most talented students and alumni, plus some special guests. This years concert will be a landmark collaboration between the Mercer Dance Ensemble and critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Vanessa Daou." Kelsey Theatre "Vanessa [Daou's] hotly-anticipated new album, Joe Sent Me, is about to hit the virtual shelves over at Daou Records, and Mercer County Community College's Mercer Dance Ensemble (M.D.E.) will be celebrating by presenting an evening of dances set to selected cuts and remixes. The concert, Joe Sent M.D.E., will premier at Kelsey Theatre on the Mercer County Community College campus this May (1200 Old Trenton Road / West Windsor, NJ). Dance Program faculty Janell Byrne will choreograph and direct, with guest choreography by Elixir co-founder Jody P. Person and others." Elixer Productions "Joe Sent Me"... sounds both familiar and very, very different to her previous work. The voice is different; less sweet, less processed, more raw and with a slightly rough edge. The sound is very different too, and that's a good thing. ... "Hurricanes" reminds me of Air's "Virgin Suicides". "True" is Vanessa's voice and acoustic guitar - SHOCKING!! "Black And White" sounds like some strange collaboration between Goldfrapp and a jazz band. "Life Force", incredibly intrinsic sonically (this is very much a headphones record) and "Manifesto" wouldn't fit on any previous Daou record - and I suspect that's why it opens the album, a true manifesto of a new sound. "Love Lives In The Dark" sounds like Massive Attack (and oh my, the thought of Vanessa working with Massive Attack makes me ecstatic). This is very much a new record by an artist who hasn't said her final word." Typing in Stereo "[S]eriously worthy of your attention is the latest album from erotic torch-singer/songwriter/nu-jazz icon Vanessa Daou, "Joe Sent Me", which is available right now only through her website - I have followed Vanessa's music avidly over the years, and this album is her best to date, I've been walking the streets in a trance listening to it over and over on my iPod since I got a copy - although their music is apples and oranges, like Juana Molina, Vanessa Daou really knows how to create intimate moods and atmospheres like a waking dream..." Gary Lucas blog "Avant-Pop Chanteuse Vanessa Daou will be joining Brion in the studio for an extended chat and play to herald the release of her 6th solo album "Joe Sent Me." Vanessa and Peter Daou helped create a fusion of jazz and house that began in the early '90s. Past albums include the groundbreaking classic "Zipless" and stunning jazz ode to John Coltrane "Dear John Coltrane" "Joe Sent Me" is her first, as a complete work, generated by Vanessa herself. It entails and extensive interweb environment and a full length CD. Future music DJ Brion Vytlacil will devote the entire show to this phenomenal artist with Vanessa in the studio for conversation about this and past works. With, of course, plenty of music! Please join us." eastvillageradio.com "Vanessa Daou is a rare artist. When she sings, it is so natural; one has the impression that it is as though she is simply breathing. Her compositions seem to be made of velvet phantasms, of lights that one kisses, the softness that falls, sensuality that materializes in music. Vanessa Daous commands her listener's attention without demanding it but so convincingly that one falls in love with her in a few minutes." Strictement Confidentiel "Sultry, sleek, and at times overtly sexual, Vanessa Daou sings for adults. Her first album, Zipless, put the poetry of Erica Jong to music and featured the downtempo hits "Near The Black Forest" and "Sunday Afternoons." Daou followed it up with a string of successful pop/jazz records that defied the odds and climbed the club and dance charts. She's that rare artist who understands that one's goals are paramount, not the deviations, cracks and commercial assaults of the marketplace. Of course, the public at large may not know Daou or her albums, Slow To Burn, Plutonium Glow, Dear John Coltrane and Make You Love, but they will get another chance to experience her artistry with the forthcoming fall release, Joe Sent Me. Meanwhile, we at Better Living Through MP3 indulge our considerable Daou fixation with samples of her previous work. ... Daou hovers above the music like dark angel, club diva and close friend rolled into one. "Love Child" is a solid slow burner, while "Mess Around" posits her in a new light: laid back blues princess, sexual tease, and gossamer aroma in sound. Daou's style is her own and it's consistently recognizable." Ken Micallef, Better Living Through MP3 |
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Afterward, we had an at length & many faceted conversation with Mercer Communications professor Alvyn Haywood for WWFM's 
Chanteuse Vanessa Daou Shares Life in Music Business With MCCC Students - "According to internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter Vanessa Daou, it's not who you know; it's how good you are. "In the end it's the quality and intrinsic value of your work that matters," she told students in a Q&A session at MCCC's Studio Theatre March 27. In a wide ranging discussion moderated by adjunct faculty member Alex DeFazio, Daou discussed her experiences in the music business and her unique musical style that blends jazz, blues, rock, folk and electronica with poetry."