colleen

I distinctly remember daydreaming, in early 2017, “Wouldn’t it be great if one day a gear/instrument manufacturer decided to give me something?”. I was aware that it happened to other musicians, some of them operating more or less at my “level” in terms of exposure, but had no clue how this actually “worked”. Did they do something that I did not do?

Shortly after that, a short chain of events led me to getting in touch with Moog Music Inc, which led to my visit to their Soundlab in Asheville in November 2017 and the recording of a session which I subsequently released on my Bandcamp… I left Asheville with the grin of a 6-year-old: I had been given the 3 Moogerfoogers used for the session. Subsequently I was also gifted their Grandmother synth, which you’ll hear on my new album. In case you’re wondering, there is no obligation for me to use any of those instruments. In fact, this was a loooot of new gear by my minimalist standards, and since too much gear causes me anxiety and I tend to work best by restricting parameters, I only used the Grandma and the MF Low Pass Filter. But one thing is for sure: when you are gifted something of extremely high quality, there is a burning desire to honour that gift, which in turn pushes you to go beyond what you had planned to do (I had no plan to use a synth, but having been given the Grandmother, I just had to try it, and fell in love).

Fast forward to today, and this incredibly generous gift by Emilie Gillet, who runs one of the most respected and celebrated modular companies in the world, Mutable Instruments. Emilie not only sent me 5 modules (the 5th one is hidden on the right, because it hasn’t even been released yet!!!), but also set up the whole thing for me and even included patch cables… I am left speechless by this extra attention. And cannot wait to see how I can incorporate these jewels in a future setup.

More and more often I find myself thinking that yes, I make music on my own, but more than ever I feel surrounded by an amount of support, generosity and kindness which I couldn’t have imagined even in my wildest dreams.

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