colleen

In my life I’ve been lucky to live in three cities with which I fell in love: Liverpool, Paris and Barcelona. Three totally different stages of my life: young and inexperienced in Liverpool in 1998, then one of the fullest periods of my life in Paris from 1999 to 2010 – the years in which I trained to be a teacher and began to teach, started the Colleen project, then became a full-time musician. I had a great time in San Sebastían (2010-2019), but would say that it was not the town that I loved there, but the presence of nature on its edges – which is slightly different. I moved to Barcelona in 2019, and although I knew I would like it, I didn’t anticipate the role it would play in my truly awful 2020. A large part of my self-devised-and-administered therapy involved walking up and down the city with my eyes truly open, and I was rewarded 10,000-fold, often thinking “Barcelona truly is my friend, always there for me”. So much so that the album is dedicated to my friends, my cats, and the city.

Irrespective of location, I feel that Covid has reemphasized how essential human connections are to a sense of belonging and well-being, and once I completed The Tunnel and the Clearing it was clear to me that *somehow* I wanted to celebrate its release , no matter how modestly, even with Covid still around. It has been my good fortune to cross paths with some amazing people here, and Laura, who runs the Chiquita Room art gallery, is one of them – so when she asked me if I might be interested in doing some sort of event around the album’s release, my answer was a resounding SÍ. For the first time in my life I am given a public space for 3 full days, which is an incredible blessing, so we are preparing something small-scale but meaningful and beautiful. We are still working out details, not least because we do not know yet if we will have full capacity or a Covid-limited one, but I can already tell you that I will be there with my instruments, eager to share with you some of my process and to play you music, in a spirit of true closeness and exchange.

Also, time to show you here the limited edition gold and white vinyl of the new album: gold exclusively available through Thrill Jockey’s mail order (shipping from both the US and Germany) and my Bandcamp (shipping from the US only), white available while stocks last at online and physical stores.

Test pressings of my new album The Tunnel and the Clearing arrived this week, and they sound great, so fingers crossed that vinyl production will go without delay in spite of Covid making things even more lengthy and complicated at vinyl plants in the US. Here’s a snippet of the fist track from the album, “The Crossing”.

Yesterday the second single of the album was released.

Of my entire catalogue spanning 18 years, “Implosion-Explosion” is the track I’m proudest of in terms of production. “Gazing at Taurus – Santa Eulalia” was about holding on to a physical vision (the figure of Santa Eulalia at the top of Barcelona’s cathedral, and at night the Pleiades above it) to withstand intense sadness. “Implosion-Explosion” is the flipside of the same coin, going into an angry territory which I hadn’t had the chance to explore in my music before, which gives me a chance to tell you more about the album and that song in particular.
The Tunnel and the Clearing is a sonic translation of the highly emotional state and the heightened sense of perception that come in the wake of a breakup and a period of great changes, with the subsequent necessary reconstruction this entails. “Implosion-Explosion” is my attempt at expressing both the sensation of being completely “see-through” once out alone in the outside world, and the combined feelings of pain and anger at what cannot be changed. PLEASE LISTEN LOUDLY at Thrill Jockey’s mail order, my Bandcamp, or any other place you fancy.
TECH SPECS: @soundgasltd Elka Drummer One into Roland RE-201 Space Echo, Yamaha Reface YC into @moogsynthesizers Moog MF-101 Lowpass Filter and MF-104M Analog Delay, vocals doubletracked into MF-104M Analog Delay. No plugin.

This week I will have the immense pleasure of letting you know about something special we’re preparing with @chiquitaroom here in Barcelona for the album’s release, so keep your eyes peeled :-)