User:Zed-Zero-Zero/sandbox

Dom Bouffard is an Anglo-French singer, guitarist, producer, composer and sound-artist from (and based in) London, UK.

He sings, plays and writes with alternative-folk duo Emperors of Rome (with Alli MacInnes) and has composed for avant-garde theatre, film, fashion, radio-art, video-art and contemporary dance.

1996-2003: He was the co-founder and guitarist of alternative rock band Sona Fariq, who signed to Warners UK and released three singles and their self-titled debut album in 2000 (produced by Chris Sheldon), earning them a nomination for 'Best New Band' at that year's Kerrang!! Awards. Although critically acclaimed, Warners were not satisfied with sales and they were dropped. Undeterred, the band recorded a second (unsigned) album in Paris with producer Alex Silva, but after a series of management changes, they disbanded before it was released.

2003-2007: Short stints with Queen Adreena and The Glass followed, as well as commissions for fashion-related films for Issey Miyake, Hussain Chalayan and Nick Knight, before he co-founded electronica project Machine with Julio Alvarez, which included additional production by Alex Silva and was mixed by John Smith. The project was plagued by personality clashes with the singer they had recruited, and consequently only one single, 'Please Yourself' (Groenland Records) was ever released.

2008-2014: He moved to Berlin in 2008, working on numerous occassions with German multi-platinum artist Groenemeyer as a guitarist and most recently, as a co-lyricist, on his English language album, 'I Walk'. He composed for a number of short films, including Moroccan film 'Le Recruitment' by Abdeslam Kelai (which received a nomination at the Tangier Film Festival), before being hired by legendary American theatre director Robert Wilson to work on two consecutive productions at Bertold Brecht's Berliner Ensemble - 'Shakespeares Sonette' (2008) with Rufus Wainwright and 'Lulu' (2010) with Lou Reed (as well as a third, one-off royal command performance, 'Grace for Grace' with Rufus and Martha Wainwright and the Monaco Philharmonic, at the the Opera Garnier, Monaco). After touring Lulu in Europe and South America, he returned to London.

Although he was initially hired by Wilson as a performer, when the opportunity arose, he produced arrangements and compositions, and while attending an artists' residency in Long Island, New York the following year (where he performed with CocoRosie and saxophonist/painter Richard Landry), Robert Wilson hired him to compose for his debut radio play 'Monsters of Grace II' (which also featured music by Adam Lenz and the late Michael Galasso) for German state broadcaster ARD. The piece featured Isabella Rossillini, Isabelle Huppert and Lady Gaga and was performed live at ZKM Karlsruhe in fall 2013. At the same time, Dom was creating a contemporary dance piece with Greek choreographer Marianna Kavallieratos - who he had met while in New York - which became 'Recalculate', commissioned by the Onassis Foundation and premiering at the Onassis Cultural Center, Athens in October 2013, and featuring Merce Cunningham veteran Meg Harper. Meanwhile, as a result of the success of 'Monsters of Grace II' he was commissioned to create his own radio-art piece for Hessischer Rundfunk, which will be broadcast in December 2014. A second collaboration with Kavallieratos, called 'Stations' (with visual artist Charles Sandison, lighting artist Eleftheria Deko and fashion designer Craig Green) followed and premiered at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival in June 2014. It was immediately picked up by the Thessaloniki Festival where it will play in September 2014. In Spring 2014 he collaborated with Budgie (The Slits/The Creatures/Siouxie & The Banshees) on the music for a Robert Wilson 'Voom' portrait of Lady GaGa who is hanging naked, in Japanese rope-bondage while her recorded voice recites de Sade. It was exhibited at the Musée du Louvre for three months as part of the 'Living Rooms' exhibition.

Composition Style: His composition style brings together elements of improvisation, free playing, musique concrete, rock'n'roll, drone and dadaism, but these elements are often juxtaposed with more traditionally understood or accessible approaches to composition (using synthesis, electronic and acoustic instruments), in order to heighten the effect of both. His approach has been greatly influenced by re-interpreting visual dramatic principles into sound and although his work can at times be hard and deliberately alienating, it will often mutate, almost un-noticed into melody. He also heavily utilises his own knowledge of sound production.

Emperors of Rome: His songs have been compared to Lou Reed, Johny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Spacemen 3 and The Velvet Underground, while German author, poet and journalist Arezu Weitholz wrote of them: "I thought of Nico and Lou Reed, but with a heart; I thought of driving through Louisiana, of country ballads from Neverwhere, as if England had roads that never end, of songs that have a straightforward beauty and a hidden complexity, deep and uplifting. Somebody mentioned Leonard Cohen,Twin Peaks, too, but it sounded as if it had no age, but a very fine timelessness, as if the songs were out there, they just needed to be found by two lovers"