Most notably a musician, her work is known among nu jazz, trip hop and electronic music circles for her trademark spoken word and aspirated singing style as well as its erotic and literary subtexts.
There, she would train with choreographer Eric Hawkins and explore visual art with Barry Moser and poetry with Kenneth Koch, whom she cites as having sparked her interest in spoken word.
An airy fusion of rock, jazz and funk, Head Music enjoyed moderate success and received praiseworthy reviews in the New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section and CREAM and Billboard magazines.
A slight stylistic evolution from Head Music, Zipless employed a somewhat more synthesized sound and introduced Daou's foray into recorded spoken word.
The album quickly established a cult following and attracted the attention of Bob Krasnow, the music A&R executive whose artist signings include Anita Baker, Björk, Natalie Merchant and Metallica.
Daou toured nationally with New York rapper Guru and his hip hop-jazz fusion project Jazzmatazz, playing at venues such as L.A.'s House of Blues, Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco and Lee's Palace in Toronto.
With each song a vignette inspired by the biographies of such celebrated female artisans as Billie Holiday, Gertrude Stein, and Frida Kahlo, Slow To Burn enjoyed moderate to heavy smooth jazz format radio play with its first single "Two to Tango".
A piece from the show entitled "Music Box" subsequently went on for display at a National Arts Club student exhibition, securing the Jeffrey Seyfert Memorial Prize.
Somewhat more heady and nostalgic in the vein of Slow to Burn than danceable like Plutonium Glow, the homage to the legendary jazz saxophonist met with warm reception by fans, but sparse marketing, press, club and radio support.
The album's song "Julliette" was used in a scene for U.S. television series Dawson's Creek; the single "A Little Bit of Pain" was used in Lifetime TV movie Sex, Lies and Obsession; and in the fall of 2000 Daou promoted the project as guest on a seven-week concert tour of France by pop vocalist Etienne Daho.
Her catalog was tapped for various music compilations and for the soundtrack to 2005 French film Lila Says, but Daou would devote this time largely to visual arts, writing and academic pursuits.
In 2007, Daou announced on her official website that various pieces created since Make You Love were being compiled for an upcoming multimedia release, introduced under the working title Then, at Midnight.
The project, ostensibly a new music album with related graphical content, ultimately would undergo a name change to Joe Sent Me, a passphrase used to navigate freely among the clandestine U.S. Prohibition-era speakeasy subculture.
Employing an array of producers, Light Sweet Crude (Act I: Hybrid) on its release would bear arguably a broader and more pronounced influence of discrete musical styles—e.g.