colleen

I am back to long form writing with this series of reflections inspired by the first leg of my tour for my 8th album Le jour et la nuit du réel. After that, I do plan to fully refocus on music-making both in the studio and live, so I hope you enjoy these :-)

REFLECTIONS ON GOING BACK TO TOURING. – PART I: A MINOR MIRACLE
It has meant the world to me to be able to go back to touring this year, on so many levels. Up until the last minute I doubted I could safely do it. I have been making music for way longer now than the short time period of my life when I did *not* make music, and although I was extremely shy as a teenager, the first time I played live (at my high school), I immediately felt at home. Next year I will play my 250th show as Colleen, a fact I wouldn’t believe myself if it wasn’t for the list I’ve kept since my first show in 2002 (you can find it in the Live shows – Past shows section of my website), but in spring 2021, things looked very different, as I had made a very serious decision to stop playing live.

On 20th September, the day before I left for New York (the first show was on 22nd at Public Records, also the day of release of Le jour et la nuit du réel), as I was packing all of my gear in my suitcase, I was so utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally, that I wondered how on earth I would pull through this, all on my own once more. I also wondered in what shape I’d be for the next 8 shows in Europe, and if I wasn’t about to betray the “contract” I have signed with myself to protect my health and well-being.
So it feels like a minor miracle to not only have done it, but to have done it and have it turn out to be my favorite time playing live *ever* – and make no mistake, a lot of stress was involved, both touring-related and life-related.
So I really feel like sharing with you some of the thoughts that have been in my head over these past 3 months, as I’ve tried to analyze what has changed within me for this to happen. Writing this down also helps to clarify it for me. I would like to think of this series of posts as the sunny-side-up, 12-years-later companion to the long piece I had published back in 2011 on my website, which had found an echo in many of you, entitled “A long account of why I’ve been silent” (part I and part II).

LEAVING FACEBOOK

I have officially abandoned the platform, you can read more here.

Wishing you all a peaceful end of year, thank you as always for your kind support, and looking forward to reuniting in 2024 :-)

I am finally able to catch up after the last 2 shows of this year in Barcelona and Lisbon :-)

“LES PARENTHÈSES ENCHANTÉES – MOVEMENT III”: BIRD SONG INSPIRATION ON THE MOOG GRANDMOTHER AND ROLAND RE-201 SPACE ECHO.
I became an avid birdwatcher 10 years ago, and had one of my best birdwatching experiences here in 2018 prior to moving. Catalunya boasts an incredible bird species diversity (395 species total, 232 regularly breeding species) and even though I have calmed down on this front, I am still fascinated by birds, and among their many incredible attributes, their singing. 
As I started to compose the third movement of “Les parenthèses enchantées”, I realized that my melodic motifs were really tapping into some kind of imaginary bird song repertoire, and I decided to really go for it, especially since I love to use Baroque-like ornamentation to try and approach monophonic keyboard playing differently.
This is the only song on Le jour et la nuit du réel that uses the Moog Grandmother twice: first with a loop of 3 “chords” (due to monophony, I am just arpeggiating them and playing a 2 note motif against them with my right hand), then with melodic lines on top of that loop, played an octave higher (the Osc having been switched from 8′ to 4′).
Again, the sound really comes alive with the use of the Soundgas Roland RE-201 Space Echo which I showcased in my recent “Be without being seen” video.

INTERVIEWS FOR HISPASONIC, HEMISPHERE SON PODCAST AND LINE NOISE PODCAST ON RADIO PRIMAVERA SOUND.

I wrote in-depth about my gear, studio and work process in Spanish on Hispasonic.

I spoke in French on the new album and my whole discography on the Hemisphere Son podcast.

And you can see and hear me talk in English on the Line Noise podcast, which I recorded live 2 weeks ago here in Barcelona at the headquarters of Radio Primavera Sound. If you prefer to just listen, it’s also available on Soundcloud here.

Second post coming to your inbox tomorrow (lots to catch up on !)

HEADPHONES OR AMP FOR THIS PLEASE: this does not sound right on a laptop, it sounds a little better on a mobile phone, but the only right way to listen to this is through headphones or an amp.

As a lifelong Lee Perry fan, I dreamt for years of owning a Space Echo, but always found reasons to not take the plunge. Then in 2018 my path crossed the path of Soundgas: I was looking for the ultra rare Elka Drummer One drum machine from 1969, they were the only outlet worldwide to have one regularly on sale, refurbished, and so this is how Gid, Tony and I started writing to each other, with me begging them to give me a heads up if the rare beast turned up. It did and I bought it, which opened the door of vintage gear in my life. I am a *very* cautious buyer in general – for everything – and I am also adverse to accumulating objects. I also do not like the thought of something sitting unused or even underused. I was sure I would love a real Space Echo after using plugin and pedal emulations for so many years, but I did want to be sure I was buying one from a trustworthy source, and I am still so happy I got mine from Soundgas. They are not paying me to write these lines, the machine speaks for itself.

It really does send sound into space, and there’s nothing like switching on the real thing and hearing the tape hiss and that warm drive. I hope you enjoy this video of “Be without being seen”, the suite from Le jour et la nuit du réel that marks the end of the day side, the first one to use the Space Echo in the album (“Les parenthèses enchantées – Mvt I – II – III – IV” also use it).

Dear everyone

I hope this message finds you all as well as possible.

Today is another Bandcamp Friday day and I am relaunching my animal shelter and rescue appeal with renewed conviction. As stated in my last message, two new things this month:

• I am including not just “Conditional” in the appeal, but also the A Flame Variations: Live in the Moog Soundlab EP, recorded in Asheville, NC, back in november 2017. Moog gave me the honor of inviting me to their famous studio located next to their factory to mark the end of production of the Moogerfoogers, which led me to reinterpreting some of the songs from my 6th album A Flame my Love, a Frequency through a daisychain of MF-101 Lowpass Filter, MF-102 Ring Modulator, MF-103 12-Stage Phaser and MF-104M Analog Delay, with the last song also using the CP251 Control Processor.

Moog were very generous to me throughout those years, and now that an uncertain chapter opens for the company , I feel super grateful for what they gave me (literally and, on a deeper level, musically) and it feels just right to somehow give back for a bigger cause. 

• From now on, I will tell you which organization your funds will go to for this particular Bandcamp Friday (and month – the appeal is always ongoing), as opposed to me choosing the organization the following month, which is what I did previously.

This month, I have chosen to highlight one of the animal causes that most breaks my heart, the tragic situation of Spanish greyhounds (galgos), who are used in Spain as hunting dogs and – because of a scandalous loophole in Spanish law, which even more scandalously was not rectified in the recent animal welfare reform – are not protected by  animal laws as they are literally considered to be “tools”. 

As always, I consider that choosing to look at hard images and read harsh accounts is a very personal choice, so in order to respect every person’s sensitivity, I will just sum up the situation by saying that *each year*, 50,000 galgos are abandoned when they are considered no longer useful for hunting, their fate being in the best case scenario roaming the countryside while starving, and in the worst case scenario a slow death from starvation, disease and wounds often voluntarily inflicted by their “owners”, with frequent cases of violent death.

The Fundación Benjamín Mehnert (Instagram and website here), based in Sevilla, is doing an incredible job rescuing galgos, a complicated endeavour involving capturing the dogs, giving them intensive vet care in many cases, rehabilitating them, then transferring them to foster homes and definitive homes, sometimes across the country, so that these animals can start a totally new life. I hope that like me, you will feel like helping them.

Deep thanks and hugs from Cécile, Sol and Klee.