As children of small-town Linkoping, Sweden,
the members of Doris Days had their first joint musical experiences
in 1989. At this time they were making alternative soundtracks (which
they themselves labelled ”romantic interpretations”)
for American movies from the 1950s. Lisa, already a promising singer,
was used on some tracks, while the boys sung or toasted on others.
The first result, a demo-cassette called ”Cricket Buddhist”,
was praised in the media as ”deeply impressive” and
the issue was quickly sold out.
Despite the growing public interest in the trio, this co-operation
was put on ice until late1991. During the years to come, the romantic
light continued to glow from the music they created. The EP ”Places”
(1993) contained four songs which were not easy to place in any
standard category. Some journalists tried though, and besides the
commonly used epithet ”escapists”, they were also deemed
”pathetical intellectualists”.
In the autumn of 1996, the full-length album ”Live in Poland”
was released. After having spent a great deal of time in Poland,
the result was a collection of songs that in many ways was the very
opposite of the softly-woven American dreamscapes from which they
had departed.
Doris Days came to Dorado's attention when a handful of 10"
singles made their way over from Japan and onto the turntables of
people like Gilles Peterson, Patrick Forge and Ross Allen. To Ulrike
M. is their debut for the label. The track is a tribute to Ulrike
Meinhof who was part of the revolutionary German terrorist group
Baader-Meinhof which operated in the 1970s and it is her own spoken
word intro that the mood for that piece.
”She is the only true icon in Western Europe this century...”
says Markus, ”I do not defend terrorism or killing, but Ulrike
Meinhof was a very beautiful woman in many ways, sad and inspiring.”
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