>>> AVANT MUSIC NEWS - AMN Reviews :
"Delphine Dora is a classically trained French pianist who plays as close to the wild heart you can get. (...) Discovering a piano in the wilderness, she tests a voice that hasn´t been used in centuries, inventing a new language to claim the land as far as it reaches. (...) Près du coeur sauvage is a kind of masterpiece in its sometimes off-key, very off-kilter insistence; a raw, chthonic, yet fair-complected folk music, old as mountains and unbeholden to any tectonic shift other than within its own, ancient soul." - Stephen Fruitman

>>> TERRASCOPE :
"A collection of unsettling yet gorgeous songs from Delphine Dora. Using mainly voice and Piano, augmented by atmospheric sounds and textures the songs weave a magic that is both delicate and deeply emotional, the tunes draped with a layer of disquiet yet containing a calm centre, the balance between the two states creating a rich tension that gives the songs a vibrant presence. Over 11 songs the listener is lulled and hypnotised, melodies drifting by, strange sounds fluttering in and out of range creating half remembered images that lie just under the surface, the whole aching and writhing with possibilities just beyond your grasp." - Simon Lewis

>>> THE OUT: DOOR :
"There’s an indelible magic in music that traces seemingly-defined shapes, yet continually diverges from its own paths in small, crucial ways. Music like this never allows itself to settle despite often offering the comforting illusion of solidity, and more importantly it never allows the listener to relax even as it openly encourages them to. It’s the kind of music Delphine Dora makes, and on près du coeur sauvage she’s so thoroughly inside that zone between serenity and disquiet that at times it feels like she invented it.
That she manages to do this simply with her voice and her piano - plus a few subtle but important accents from field recordings – gives her songs an unsettlingly elemental aura. At times it’s as if she unearthed a cache of traditional children’s tunes that we all knew in a previous life, but in her hands they get a little warped, a little frayed, even a little frightening. She doesn’t even have to sing actual words for these tunes to burrow into the easily-vibrated parts of my brain, and when près du coeur sauvage really hits, it’s like my cortex is a tuning fork and Dora’s music is the best kind of hammer."
– Marc Masters

>>> TINY MIX TAPES :
"After losing their candles to spirit, three branches separate from the candelabra and huddle in the still of a recluse’s night. Each branch points listlessly towards the next… tiny embellishments in the shadow light. Along the trail, intersecting limbs and knotting joints inflame the glass. Rises in Dora’s voice hit harder against the glass and cause the bloated pot to boil over into a salon-style shadow box, filled with melodic contrasts and colors, items specifically found along trails carved a few miles past the carriage houses of Debussy and Satie. The candles go romancing in background mattes of rural Pennsylvania and red Mars."

>>> "Really enjoyed your new disc. Actually my favourite of all your releases. Certainly the hardest to describe. I particularly like is lightness and looseness. Very natural and weightless. I think your vocals are particularly beautiful given a bit more space."
It is like being trapped in a washing machine with your favourite few songs; both hypnotic and disorientating. As the memories slosh around so regret mixes with the better times. Despite being the most experimental of Delphine's releases it is also the most open and accessible. A weightless picture-book made of magical sounds. Her voice sweeps like a hand makes a loose knot on the ground. The language of her earlier poetry has been unravelled, but what is left is something ethereal and altogether more enlightened. It sounds like a nightmarish take on traditional, ritual folk. Each listen is different - like the responsibility is slowly passed. Multi-tracked vocals are bedded in an organic mix of texture and time; flutes question, strings answer and guitars sound like something that will always be chased. There might even be a harpsicord tapping into fifties sci-fi fears of robots invading. Even the field recordings have me nervously looking behind. And yet everything is held loosely in the arms and charms of a beautiful piano. The breathing rhythm rises and falls within the improvisation and you can't but fall in step and join in. A bit of dissonance brings a darkness to the play. No-one sounds like Delphine, and now she sounds even better."
Paul Garcia, my-friend-red.tumblr.com