"For years Vanessa Daou has been creating a brand of music that not only explores all facets of the sensual but dares listeners to indulge in the more private reaches of their sexual fantasies. Daou's music came to prominence when she released her premiere solo album Zipless, an overtly steamy brew of eroto-beats and beatnik jazz all set to the yearning eroticism of Erica Jong's poetry. That album was followed up with other efforts that exercised her creative muscles sonically, from the blue-moon-swoon of Slow to Burn and the techno-fairytales of Plutonium Glow to the jazz-psychedelica of Dear John Coltrane. Whatever the project, Daou always put forth her passion for poetry, never allowing it a secondary standing to the music at hand.

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."

Read full review @ PopMatters

The Women Who Rocked My World, by Glen Boyd aka The Rockologist "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. ... 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 - "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." The QUIETUS

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

Includes:

• "Surrender Yourself" - rmxd by Danny Tenaglia
• "Two to Tango" - rmxd by Danny Tenaglia
• "Sunday Afternoons" - rmxd by Danny Tenaglia
• "Near the Black Forest" - rmxd by Olive

Plus never released mixes of 'How Do You Feel' by Mood II Swing

LOVE AMONG THE SHADOWED THINGS

For 'Weird Tales for Winter', a series of 8 strange fictions curated by Jonny Mugwump for Resonance 104.4. FM, UK

'Snow': part 2 | Love Among the Shadowed Things

Weird Tales for Winter: Newsletter #10 "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

Just Say That Joe Sent You: the backroom aural sex of Vanessa Daou

"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. ... It's a album of jazz, for sure, but the aesthetic at work here is almost punk; sound and poetry are layered like graffiti." Inside Entertainment, Canada

"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 DAOU Records before its wide release." Windy City Times

JOE SENT M(D)E:

Published: May 10, 2009 - 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) 570-3333Link

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

"Interview by Rachel Katz, host of 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

Interview with Mercer Communications professor Alvyn Haywood for NPR: WWFM's Jazz On 2 89.1 FM, Trenton's Jazz Station. Read more about JAZZ ON 2 here Streaming audio interview with Alvyn Haywood here.

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." MCCC News

"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

etienne daho 'carte blanche'

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. Fnac

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

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." Read full interview by poet/novelist Collin Kelley at Soldout

The Daou of Poetry: A conversation with musician and poet Vanessa Daou By Collin Kelley for Ouroboros Review

JOE SENT ME @ BARCELONA POESIA 2008

Amb la colálaboració de la Universitat de Barcelona, l'Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, la Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, la Direcció General del Llibre, Arxius i Biblioteques del MECD i l'Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Barcelona.

Video interview 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.

Music on soundtrack for Lila Says, by director/co-writer Ziad Doueiri

During the filming we often listened to music, especially Vanessa DaouÕs songs, a few of which are in the film. The whole moped scene was filmed while we played back the songs "Black Forest" and "Juliette."

It was by coincidence that I first heard Vanessa's music in 1997, at a record shop in Santa Monica. I had never heard about her before and I picked up the album simply because of the cover photo. There was a Ôparental advisory, explicit lyricsÕ tag on it.

Her music was terrific. It was a mix of jazz, ethereal and electronicaÑa very erotic album, both in lyrics and music. VanessaÕs music is very visual and inspiring, and most of the visuals of the film were inspired by her songs.
A series of contacts led me to come to New York and finally meet her, along with her composer/producer, Peter Daou. We spoke about collaborating on a film, and she agreed. A few years later, I started Lila Says, and her music made it to the movie." Landmark Theatres