colleen

Post in English + Castellano abajo! 

I am so thrilled to finally give you all the details on the 3-day celebration of the release of The Tunnel and the Clearing at Chiquita Room! It’s the first time I get the chance to do this, I get the sense it might possibly be the last time too since people and circumstances have to align for this sort of stuff to happen, and I guess that in a weird way, Covid is in great part responsible for this happening :-) So, without further ado, what will you get?

• Me smiling and all this gear – Sol the cat not included
• 6 concerts performing the new album, 2 each day – LIMITED CAPACITY – ALL BOOKING DETAILS IN LIVE SECTION: 

5-7 pm: live show + technical demonstration + Q and A (in English and Spanish)

8-9 pm: live show

Regarding the “tech demonstration”, think super informal workshop: showing you in as much detail as you want the way I played and produced the album, with an opportunity to see up close a rare machine (I don’t think there are many Elka Drummer Ones in Barcelona… ) and some not-so-common analog gear such as a Space Echo in perfect working order and the now discontinued Moogerfoogers (which, by the way, I was officially asked to celebrate in a session at Moog Soundlab Studio back in 2017).

In the Q and A I will welcome all types of questions, whether artistic (and these can be on my older albums too) or on other subjects I’m passionate about, such as the mental and physical health of musicians, more down-to-earth aspects of the music business such as labels and publishing, etc.

Also on the menu: 

• screening of Daniel Barreto’s mind-expanding animation video for “Hidden in the Current” and Luis Torroja’s minidocumentary on the album 
• limited screenprint edition of Andrés Gómez Servín’s original artwork
• records galore: limited white and gold vinyl of The Tunnel + CDs, vinyl of A flame my love, a frequency and Captain of none, vinyl and CD of the hard-to-get The Weighing of the Heart
• super limited edition tote bag of the new album 

Will you join us?

CASTELLANO

Estoy muy emocionada de poder por fin daros todos los detalles sobre la celebración de 3 días que hemos planificado para la salida de The Tunnel and the Clearing en Chiquita Room! Es la primera vez que tengo la oportunidad de hacer algo así, y tengo la sensación que posiblemente será también la última, dado que la gente y las circunstancias se tienen que “alinear” para que pase algo asi, y creo que de cierta manera, el Covid es en gran parte responsable de este evento :-) Pero sin más preámbulos, que os propongo?

• Yo con esta sonrisa y todo este material – Sol el gato no queda incluido.
• 6 conciertos tocando el nuevo disco, 2 por dia – AFORO LIMITADO – DETALLES DE RESERVA EN LA BIO:

17h-19h: concierto + demostración técnica + Q and A (en Inglés y Castellano)

20-21h: concierto

Con “demostración técnica”, se entiende un especie de taller muy informal: enseñándoos con todos los detalles que queréis la manera en que toqué y produje mi disco, con la oportunidad de ver de muy cerca una máquina muy poco común (no creo que haya muchas Elka Drummer Ones en Barcelona…) y material análogo tampoco muy frecuente como un Space Echo en perfecta condición y los ahora-discontinuados Moogerfoogers (que, por cierto, me invitaron a celebrar en el Moog Soundlab Studio en 2017 – enlace en bio).

En el Q and A están bienvenidos todos tipos de preguntas, tanto artísticas (incluso sobre mis discos anteriores) como sobre otros aspectos que me apasionan, como la salud mental y física del músico, aspectos más prácticos del music business como discográficas y edición/derechos de autor, etc

También en el menú:

• proyección del mind-expanding (no sé cómo decirlo en Castellano!) video de animación de Daniel Barreto para “Hidden in the Current” y del mini-docu de Luis Torroja sobre mi disco.
• serigrafía limitada del artwork original de Andrés Gómez Servín para la portada
• lluvia de discos: vinilos en edición limitada oro y blanco de The Tunnel + CDs, vinilos de A flame my love, a frequency y Captain of none, vinilos y CDs del no-fácil-de-encontrar The Weighing of the Heart.
• edición súper limitada de tote bags del nuevo disco.

Te apuntas? Gracias desde el corazón a la gran Laura . Foto del también grande Luis Torroja. 

“Hidden in the Current” is the closer of my new album The Tunnel and the Clearing, its sonic and emotional climax, with Hammond organ and oscillators from the Moog Grandmother joining forces through filtering and modulation: awakening to a hard but inevitable truth, owning it, and realizing that ultimately, all life experiences – positive and negative, joyful and painful – are “hidden in the current / Where all things grow / Even on their own” (full lyrics and list of gear at the end of this post).

But today I have the immense pleasure not just of sharing a new song with you, but also presenting an animation video which I think stands as a work of art in its own right. 

When I discovered Mexican artist Daniel Barreto’s work last year – and in particular his amazing animations –  I was just starting to record the album’s songs in their definitive versions, and I immediately sensed he’d be the perfect person to translate visually what I was trying to do sonically. I just didn’t know he would actually surpass my expectations. 

Please put on a pair of headphones or plug into a good amp and watch this in hi def on a good screen: I hope you will find the warmth of these colourful vibrations as moving and intoxicating as I do.

Gear list: Yamaha Reface YC into Moog Grandmother into MF-104M Analog Delay, vocals (single-tracked, then double-tracked) into MF-104M.

“I am waking

I finally woke up

And stood on my own

It was hidden in the current

Where all things flow

It was hidden in the current

Where all things go

It was hidden in the current

Where all things grow

Even on their own”

Given the seemingly unending pandemic, it is with great emotion and slight disbelief that I am announcing what seems impossible even to me: a real live show in London, in beautiful Kings Place, full capacity. The London audience has always had a soft spot in my heart: my largest audience in Europe, and one of the most enthusiastic too (I’ll never forget the show at St John’s on Bethnal Green in December 2017: I’d never seen an atmosphere like that in a church and even asked the audience if they’d been handed something illegal before entering, such was their cheerful attitude! :-))) So needless to say I will try to make this show as special as possible. Tickets and details here.

To illustrate this excellent news, what could be more appropriate than more excellent news? Luis Torroja has almost completed the editing of our minidocumentary on my new album The Tunnel and the Clearing, and here’s a tiny snippet for your pleasure, a section of the opening track “The Crossing”, featuring the Elka Drummer One and Space Echo.

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A post shared by colleen – Cécile Schott, musician (@colleenplays)

Earlier this month, I also finally changed the tape of my beloved RE201 Space Echo: the tape it came with when I first got it in December 2019, the tape that accompanied me throughout the making of The Tunnel and the Clearing  and which I didn’t change *on purpose* even though it sounded used and tired – I felt the same way, and thought there couldn’t be a better symbol of what I was going through than to keep literally repeating with that tape.
After I finished the album, I felt a strange resistance to actually changing it, but I have finally done it… I’ll stop the talking and let the pics of those beautiful innards do the talking. In order of appearance from 2 onwards: old tape, tape “trajectory” details, new tape straight out of its box looking quite like a Yin/Yang symbol, then finally set up to run. It sounds beautiful 😃