Music
Press
"....as you can imagine they (Dorec-a-belle) have a very distinctive sound. A sound these days you can hear being played extensively on BBC Radio Scotland. Last year they busked the festival, this year play The Potting Shed Stage. Simply one of the most interesting bands to emerge recently; great to see them being recognised outwith the area now too." - Rob Ellen, promoter with House Concert Hub and Medicine Music July 2012
"....as you can imagine they (Dorec-a-belle) have a very distinctive sound. A sound these days you can hear being played extensively on BBC Radio Scotland. Last year they busked the festival, this year play The Potting Shed Stage. Simply one of the most interesting bands to emerge recently; great to see them being recognised outwith the area now too." - Rob Ellen, promoter with House Concert Hub and Medicine Music July 2012
Dorec-a-belle are unique and not just because they boast an all-female line-up - a rarity on the Inverness music scene. Nor is it for an indie-soul-folk sound which those who have already heard the foursome have likened to a female Arcade Fire or Mumford And Sons...No, as flute and sax player, bev Fraser, points out, stick their name into Google and the only hit you are likely to get is Dorec-a-belle.....
...Dorec-a-belle also have an untypical line-up.."We have all come from classically trained backgrounds and you don't usually get accordion, sax and cello playing together," Fraser pointed out. - Inverness Courier 25th March 2011
Early afternoon saw Inverness band, Dorec-a-belle, open the Summerisle Stage....a perfect warm-up for the line-up to follow. - Dumfries and Galloway Gazette July 2013
Early afternoon saw Inverness band, Dorec-a-belle, open the Summerisle Stage....a perfect warm-up for the line-up to follow. - Dumfries and Galloway Gazette July 2013
As favourable weather continued into Saturday....the main stage welcomed winners of the Unsigned Band Contest, Dorec-a-belle. The four-piece played like seasoned veterans of the festival circuit, despite this being their first main stage festival gig. With their warm sound, it won't be too many years before they are gracing main stage festivals around the country. - Middle Music July 2013
As favourable weather continued into Saturday....the main stage welcomed winners of the Unsigned Band Contest, Dorec-a-belle. The four-piece played like seasoned veterans of the festival circuit, despite this being their first main stage festival gig. With their warm sound, it won't be too many years before they are gracing main stage festivals around the country. - Middle Music July 2013
This group (Dprec-a-belle) has a fantastic musicality. - Musical Bletherings blog
This group (Dprec-a-belle) has a fantastic musicality. - Musical Bletherings blog
Dorec-a-belle are a four-piece, all-female band form Inverness, who are making their first visit to Dunoon to play at The Braes on Saturday March 10th. Having formed in January 2011, they have since played not only quite a number of gigs around the Inverness area but also some major festivals including Belladrum Tartan Heart, Live At Troon, Glasgow's Summer of Song. They were also invited to play the 2011 Ironworks Venue Showcase in Inverness, the Highland Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, and were lucky enough to be chosen to record their song You Got Me in Belladrum Festival'smobile recording studio, the 1950s retro Rockhopper. Other highlights int he band's short life have been supporting The Bonfire Band and The staves at several gigs in the Highlands. - Dunoon Observer 9th March 2012
Dorec-a-belle are a four-piece, all-female band form Inverness, who are making their first visit to Dunoon to play at The Braes on Saturday March 10th. Having formed in January 2011, they have since played not only quite a number of gigs around the Inverness area but also some major festivals including Belladrum Tartan Heart, Live At Troon, Glasgow's Summer of Song. They were also invited to play the 2011 Ironworks Venue Showcase in Inverness, the Highland Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, and were lucky enough to be chosen to record their song You Got Me in Belladrum Festival'smobile recording studio, the 1950s retro Rockhopper. Other highlights int he band's short life have been supporting The Bonfire Band and The staves at several gigs in the Highlands. - Dunoon Observer 9th March 2012
The news is still sinking in for the winners of the Sunday Herald competition to win a place on the Wickerman Festival bill. On Thursday night our three short-listed bands went head-to-head at The Wicker Warm-up in Glasgow's Broadcast Bar. Dorec-a-belle form Inverness will play the Dundrennan Festival on July 27th. ....Maryann and Bev are nurses, Liza and Imke are music teachers, and all four are working mothers....... Maryann said "Our goal is to record our first album and just keep having fun!" - Sunday Herald newspaper 30.6.2013
The news is still sinking in for the winners of the Sunday Herald competition to win a place on the Wickerman Festival bill. On Thursday night our three short-listed bands went head-to-head at The Wicker Warm-up in Glasgow's Broadcast Bar. Dorec-a-belle form Inverness will play the Dundrennan Festival on July 27th. ....Maryann and Bev are nurses, Liza and Imke are music teachers, and all four are working mothers....... Maryann said "Our goal is to record our first album and just keep having fun!" - Sunday Herald newspaper 30.6.2013
Discography
https://soundcloud.com/dorecabelle
EP - Listen (four songs plus one audio + video track)
Photos
Bio
Since forming two years ago, Dorec-a-belle have made rapid and formidable inroads into the indie-folk/pop music scene, gaining glowing acclaim for their gorgeous four-part harmonies, strong song-writing and accomplished musicianship. Their unique sound comprising guitar, sax, accordion and cello, has taken them to increasingly high-profile gigs, including Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Wickerman Festival, Live At Troon Festival, Jocktoberfest, Glasgow's Summer of Song Festival and Southside Festival, Celtic Connections' Danny Kyle Stage, as well as supporting The Magic Numbers, The Staves, The Bonfire Band and guitar virtuoso Nick Harper.
Recently the band won the Sunday Herald newspaper's nation-wide Unsigned Band Competition, after a three-stage contest including a public vote and live play-off final held in Glasgow. The prize was a slot at the famous Wickerman Festival near Dumfries and in July Dorec-a-belle duly opened the Saturday main stage, receiving glowing reviews for their performance and sunny, festival sound.
With all the girls being classically-trained musicians, and having also served musical apprenticeships in folk, Cajun, jazz and blues line-ups, Dorec-a-belle bring diverse influences and experience to their potent melting pot of music, from which they have forged a sound that is vocally beautiful, musically intricate and strikingly textured, coupled with catchy, memorable songs that soar from gentle and delicate to powerful and immensely danceable.
Notching up widespread radio play, including Radio Scotland's Iain Anderson show, Celtic Music Radio, Moray Firth Radio, Dunoon FM, Loch Broom FM, Nevis FM and online stations, the band has been variously likened to The Be Good Tanyas, Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons. However the truth is that Dorec-a-belle is unique - in sound, instrumentation and of course their songs. A member of the audience once summed up the band after a gig when he told them, “That was stunning! There's just no-one else doing what you girls are doing.”
Influences are many and varied - from The Beatles to The Punch Brothers, from Howling Wolf to the accordion masters of Russia, from French Musette to Mozart, from Dylan to the Delta blues, from the Cajun / zydeco dance halls of Louisiana to Emmylou Harris and so many, many more - the girls believe you never stop learning in music and all their musical passions find their way into the rich weave of threads that is the Dorec-a-belle tapestry. Their range of experience and depth of musicality shine through in the playful exchange between sax and accordion, the rich, percussive rhythms of the cello, the highly individual guitar style and of course the four soaring voices.
Their song lyrics are both poetic and powerful, written with heartfelt emotion, and lending the music an authenticity, potency and heft gained only from life-experience. X Factor it ain't!
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