BIO
The lovesick bastard child of Tom Waits and Nina Simone, Los Angeles-based singer/artist Dorian Wood has held audiences captive for years, on street corners, in concert halls and performance spaces throughout the US, Mexico and Europe, carrying with him a sound that marries troubadour balladry with the avant-garde, both as a soloist and as a member of the 30-piece experimental orchestra, Killsonic. Most recently, Dorian performed a series of duets at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City with legendary artist Little Annie.
Born in Echo Park, California, Dorian began his musical education at a very early age, continuing his studies at Conservatorio de Castella in Costa Rica, and eventually returning to Los Angeles, where he developed his unique, dramatic style with two short-lived but critically-acclaimed projects: the space-rock band The Dorian Wood Guilt Trip, and the experimental gospel choir The Northern Embers. In 2007, Dorian released his debut album, BOLKA, which boasted a collection of heartbreak songs enhanced by horns, strings, accordions and the Bulgarian women's choir, Nevenka, Dorian has also curated several multi-media events in Los Angeles, and is currently collaborating with Killsonic on an opera to be presented at the REDCAT Theater.
Dorian's latest release, Black Pig Suite, is a 4-song download-only EP featuring 17 musicians and a Christmas lawn ornament. He is currently working on his follow-up to BOLKA, entitled Rattle Rattle, which will be released in its entirety in late 2010.
Dorian lives in Los Angeles.
PRESS
"Armed with a vocal charisma that would befit a preacher and an experimental streak that would make avant-gardists swoon, artist and musician Dorian Wood makes mercurial pop that demands and deserves attention." - CULTURE WNYC
"The androgynous emotionality of Wood’s singing voice lends itself to the demanding theatricality of [his] lyrics, arrangements and production. The nakedness of a lover’s need and the wide-eyed madness that ensues when that need is not met twine around one another." - LA WEEKLY
"Wood unleashes gospel-infused wails and testimony that bring the audience…to a frenzy.” – THE ADVOCATE
"Dorian Wood is an instigator extraordinaire. A shape-shifter. A subtle court jester posing as a harmless house pet. An inspiring addition to the freakish world we now live in...a true artist in the purest sense of the word." - CITIZEN LA
"Lording over the keys, the living ghost of deep delta bluesmen, Wood's rapturous songs marry the fevered spirituality of Southern gospel to the virtuosity of golden era Tin Pan Alley composers. Stories swirling in apocalyptic imagery waltz through the looking glass, confronting Alice's hallucinatory wonderland. It's the blood and gore of Brothers Grimm undercut with Bertolt Brecht's savage social criticisms, tightly wound and careening around the corners without losing control." - VINGT PARIS
"[Dorian Wood's] BOLKA is a tour-de-force of eclectic, hypnotic folk-rock. Jaw-dropping beauty." (20 Top Albums of 2008) - OUT IN THE CITY (UK)