Cast an eye over the world's female singer-songrruriters and it can seem like :he genre is govemed by a small, dog- gedly conservative rulebook. You can be a silky-voiced, vaguel-v m-vstical folkie Jewel, Heather Nova), a conÍessional l-hinger (Tori Amos, Alanis) and, well, :hat's about it.

One woman who clearlr,didn't
:eceive her copy of the book is Fusee Doree, aka Bordeaur-bom, Amsterdam- rased Emmanuelle Orrton. 'When people rear "girlwith a guitar'' they usually assume a few things,'she says. 'Then :hey're surprised at what they get.'

Live, Omon sounds like more than he sum of her parts. Armed with an .lectric guitar, a loop pedal and a raft

,f electronic boxes, she actively resists :he plodding, acoustic trappings of
:lany singer-songwriters. Edgy and .himmering, her sound is awash with .a1'ers of lo-fi noise, skittish beats and
: gent. childlike vocals - mostly sung in :er native French. 'It's a shame that a lot

i people here may not understand,' she

:rflects. 'l do take a lot of time with the '.rics.'

Ornon's first compositions were :rade as an installation arlist in Bor-

-carx over ten years ago: timid, layered,

..

cal sound collages designed to be -.a-ved alongside her visual creations. ::nce moving to Amsterdam, she's been , .ongstanding member of local world- :, p combo Children SuMadre, but it

:rsn't until 2009 - during an event at .-:rsterdam's Maison Descartes French

Institute - that she stmpped on a guitar and took the stage solo.

'l'd set some French poems to music,' she says. 'But the first Fusee Dorée shorv. rvith my own songs and ly,rics, wasn't until last year.'

The visual arts origins of Fusee Dorée a-re still apparent: partly in the cool elegance of Ornon's stage pres-
ence (rr,ith her black bob and angular featr-ues, she looks every inch the
French chanteuse) but also in the certain cinenatic quality her music possesses. The sexy, robo-femme vocals of 'Same Things' rvould comfortably soundtrack a grain"v afi-house urban romance, while the Gallic sheen of 'Twinkle' recalls the

Edg! and shimmedng, heÍ sound is awash with layerc of lofi noise

French duo Air's score for Tlrc Virgin Suicides.

This month, Fusee Doree hits the Winston Kingdom for an event organ- ised by Bon Esprit - a French event or- ganiser also based in Amsterdam, who shares Omon's taste for the unusual. 'You never know what to expect with his shows,' she says. 'l did one for him
in a shoe shop.'She pauses, then adds with rypically French insouciance: 'They uere really good shc;es.' Kit Ballantyne