DOLCHE

Christine Herin, known professionally as D O L C H E, is an Italian-French singer, songwriter, composer and record producer. She was born in Valle d'Aosta, a French-speaking autonomous region in the north of Italy.

The choice of this stage name – Dolche – is a tribute to the melancholic and nostalgic vision of old Europe depicted in the drama film and masterpiece by Federico Fellini “La Dolce Vita”. The Italian word “dolce”, meaning sweet, alludes to Christine Herin’s musical style, and the addition of the letter H transforms the artist’s name to “Dolche”, which also includes the initials of her real name “CH”. By contrast the word “Dolche”, in German, means “daggers”.

A multi-instrumentalist with remarkable voice skills, Dolche stands out for her evocative and eclectic musical style, which draws from a broad range of different genres (folk, chanson française, world music, classical music, funk, electronic music), and for her unusual stage outfit of flower crowns and cow horns. This is a reference to the figure of the “Reine”, the name given to the cows during a seasonal festival in the Valle d’Aosta called La Désarpa, when they come down from the mountain pastures at the end of summer to graze at the bottom of the valley, being adorned for the occasion with large crowns of flowers and feasted by cheering crowds along the way.

Dolche was born in Valle d’Aosta, a mountainous region in northern Italy, bordering with France and Switzerland, belonging to the International Organisation of the Francophonie, in a small mountain village with 40 inhabitants called Vignil. Her musical life started early as a self-taught musician, and she trained her voice in the parish choir and imitating the songs of birds. At that early age the only language she learnt to speak was the local Franco-Provençal patois.

Dolche acquired a certain fame on the Italian and French musical scenes, between 2002 and 2017, with the stage name Naif. She was also part of several Italian and French independent bands. Her work has been well received by critics for its distinctive musical style and blending of different genres.

Over the years she has researched the strange and bizarre musical instruments used by cultural minorities, as well as world music in general. Her style, in fact, draws a lot from the music tradition of the Francophone regions and Arab music. During the production of her first album, Dolche’s music has been compared to the works of Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Feist, Aznavour and Gainsbourg.

Her’s musical style is known and appreciated for the broad variety of instruments she arranges and plays, also thanks to the support of the Roli keyboard. In addition to playing the guitar, she also plays the bass, piano, percussions and organ. Her music also often includes strings, brass, woodwinds, polyphonic choirs and a range of unusual and rare instruments, such as the vibraphonette, duduk, lute, kazoo and many others. Dolche sings in various languages, but primarily in French, Italian and English. In many of her lyrics she mixes and alternates different languages. Her song “Why Because”, for example, contains sentences in Chinese, Arab and Japanese. Her musical style is often referred to as pop world music.

Dolche’s debut album will be released in 2019.