Dani Siciliano

dj set

Program: Dj set Pavilion C Saturday (20.03) 10:00 p.m.

Dani grew up in America. She learned the clarinet at an early age and played in orchestras and marching bands. She was also a member of the North Virginia Regional Choir. In the early nineties Dani moved to San Francisco where she made a name for herself as a resident DJ at legendary club, The Endup.In 1998 Dani moved to England and began to put the "sing" into "singular" on all the Herbert albums from 1998's "Around The House", to 2001's "Bodily Functions", 2003's big band outing "Goodbye Swingtime" and 2006's "Scale".

The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Dani´s voice recalls everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Siouxsie Sioux and musically the electronic and the organic are practically indistinguishable. It’s ancient, it’s modern, it’s relaxing, it’s attitude-filled, it’s dreamy, it’s exciting and it’s impossible to recommend this album too much.”In addition to recording and touring with Herbert, Dani has also provided vocals for The Soft Pink Truth Out of Step (Minor Threat) (2004) and Brooks’ You, Me & Us (2002) and Wandering (2003). In 2005 Dani remixed former Moloko singer Rosin Murphy’s single If We’re In Love (What Will Be Will Be Mix) (2005). Dani herself has taken an unusual approach to remixes, preferring instead to invite artists including Matmos, Mara Carlyle and Gabriel Olegavich to cover her songs.

Other projects include an ongoing partnership with French fashion designer Gaspard Yurkievich. Dani has written and recorded original pieces of music for Yurkievich’s fashion shows and has collaborated on two installation pieces, Soiree Nomades (2002) and Cubisim (2003), which explore and challenge the relationship between fashion and performance. She also performed live at Yurkievich’s Live show (2005) and at his Spring/Summer ’06 show It All Tattoos You (2005). Recently Dani has finished her first record since a long stint in "electronic" music. In her new Parisian home she has recorded, in ‘realtime’, a collection of her favourite disco classics with haunting pianist Gael Rakotondrabe. Most of the songs have very haunting lyrics and complex melodies that are overshadowed by the "lightness" and "grandness" of the production that typifies the disco sound. The idea was to create a new "bed" for the said melodies to lie upon and create arrangements with Gael that allowed for the original melody of each song to highlight the sometimes sombre meanings of the lyrics.

The result is an achingly beautiful and breath-taking poignant record; ‘Discovered’.As a DJ who has played everywhere from Berlin to Sydney, Dani's deep love and playful knowledge of music is clear in her sets: obscure 12"s, classic cuts you forgot you loved and fresh mixes you're surprised no-one's thought of before. Disco, House, Soul, a cheeky nod to Acid, Electro and Techno — everything and nothing is sacred in Dani's box of party tricks.