Belle's music grapples with issues ranging from critiques of power to intimacy and sexuality, and often explores the emotional experiences of "beautiful alienation"[7] created by the isolation and passive guilt of unsustainable lifestyles that are destructive to human well-being and the natural environment.[8] Belle has also highlighted these issues in collaboration with artists across disciplines,[9] including Culture Jammers such as The Yes Men[10] and transgender choreographer, Sean Dorsey.[11] Belle is openly queer[12] and blurs typical representations of sexuality and gender.
History
Belle released a debut album Sleeping Patterns in November 2008.[13] In support of the release, Belle toured with Little Dragon and Manuok. Sleeping Patterns garnered further commercial success after the song How Can I Be Sure appeared in the Xbox 360 game Alan Wake. Belle toured extensively in 2009, 2010, 2011 in the US and Canada, first with The Album Leaf, and then with Tricky, and later with Gustavo Santaolalla's band Bajofondo. Live performances feature Belle performing vocals, violin, electric guitar, keyboards, bass, drum machine, samplers and programming by looping herself live. During a second tour with The Album Leaf and Sea Wolf, Belle also performed with The Album Leaf for their entire set.[14]
In 2012 Belle contributed vocals and production to several tracks on Eighty One, the album from Ninja Tune artist Yppah. The two artists met when they performed together on tour with Bonobo. Over the next two years, Belle toured in support of the album as a featured artist during live Yppah performances, performing on guitar, keys, violin, drum machine and vocals.[17]
Flux, Belle's third album, features an interdisciplinary art project exploring disillusionment and the search for identity, and was released in the US in August 2016,[18] and worldwide in 2017. Fourteen visual art pieces accompany the album in an artbook,[19] featuring new works from Marco Mazzoni, Redd Walitzki, Mark Demsteader, Kari-Lise Alexander, Casey Weldon, Meredith Marsone, Alessandra Maria, Alex Garant, Alpay Efe, Januz Miralles, Maria Teicher, Antonio Velfín, Alexandra Becker-Black and Zin Lim. Each piece is a portrait of Belle and her music, and was displayed at Modern Eden Gallery. Belle followed Flux with several EPs, including a cover of King of Carrot Flowers, and a full-length remix album, Flux Remixed, including remixes by Antibalas, Prefuse 73, Blockhead, DJ Nobody, Alex Banks, Diasuke Tanabe, Robot Koch, El Huervo, Cuushe, Monokle, Aiko Aiko, Lushloss, and Televangel of Blue Sky Black Death; with cover art by Minjae Lee (aka GrenoMJ).[20]
In 2018 Belle created original music (alongside musicians Alex Kelly, Jesse Olsen Bay, Ben Kessler, Grey Reverend) for Sean Dorsey's dance-theater work, Boys in Trouble, which was awarded an Isadora Duncan Award for Best Music/Sound. The work is performed by the 5 dancer-performers of Sean Dorsey Dance, and unpacks contemporary American masculinity with unflinching honesty and from unapologetically trans and queer perspectives.[21]Boys In Trouble premiered in April 2018 at San Francisco's Z Space before launching a 2-year, 20-city international tour.[21]
"February Sun", "How Can I Be Sure", "On TV", "American View", "Before You Leave Me", and "Bedtime Stories" appeared on episodes of Jersey Shore (TV series)
