colleen

My second album.
The first on which I adopted the approach I’ve kept ever since: I’ll-play-whatever-the-hell-I-want-to-play-and-do-my-best.

The second of the two albums I recorded while teaching English in a lycée in the Paris suburbs, with that insane public transport journey I’ll never forget (3 hours/day, metro+RER+bus with my pupils…). I got a sabbatical in 2006, resigned in 2007 and still don’t know how I simultaneously handled teaching, recording albums and playing live shows abroad.
Recorded in Paris in the living room of the flat I had just moved to, in pure DIY-style: contact mikes mostly, everything going through my beloved pedals (Boss RC20, Akai Headrush, Line 6 DL4), then into ACID for chopping, looping, pitching and adding plugins.
Many factors contributed to my decision to stop sampling and start playing and processing instruments myself: hand-on-mouse-staring-into-Soundforge-and-Acid fatigue, realizing there were copyright issues I hadn’t really considered when releasing my first (mostly sampled) album, wanting to play live and understanding I was never going to be able to do that in a satisfactory way with sampled material (it would be different now with the incredible gear now available), having a revelation when I heard Lou Harrison’s work for gamelan and realizing I too wanted to play instruments again (I’m originally a guitar player).
The first album on which my love for African string instrument traditions is made clear.
Officially my best selling album in physical format (then again this was the mid-2000s, so you really can’t compare that to anything now).
To this day one of my favorite albums of my own, certainly the most blissed-out, representative of a time when my life changed for the best.

Last vinyl copies on Thrill Jockey website (US shipping) and Anost (Berlin shipping)
Digital on Bandcamp + all online platforms

Song by song instrument details in 2022 post.

Dear everyone

I completely forgot to announce this event over here: at 6 pm today I will be doing a Matriarch deep dive at Barcelona’s one and only modular shop, the amazing Elevator Sound! This will be followed by an open Matriarch/Eurorack jam! Limited capacity, 5.30 pm arrival advised :-)

TODAY 2nd May 2025: BANDCAMP FRIDAY DOUBLE FUNDRAISER! >4K$ collected already 🙏🙏🙏
SPECIAL VERSIONS – LIVE AT ACCA, BRIGHTON, FUNDRAISER #3 FOR ORAM @oramrefugee , LGBTIQ refugee NGO operating in Kenya, Mexico and Europe.
+ FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS RECORDINGS, FUNDRAISER #14 FOR LUCHANDO PPP, helping Perros Potencialmente Peligrosos (“potentially dangerous dogs”) in Spain.

Dear everyone, I am back with a double fundraiser for this BANDCAMP FRIDAY – a reminder that this lasts 24 hours today from 9am Central European Time/ midnight Pacific Time and is the ideal day to fundraise, as the platform does not take its 15% commission.
I discovered American non-profit ORAM, the Organization for Refugee, Asylum and Migration, through film-maker Shaun Kadlec @shaunkadlec , who used my music back in 2015 for a harrowing documentary on the situation of the gay and lesbian communities in Cameroon. ORAM helps LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers in all the steps of their journey to a safer place, providing shelter and emergency response, in a global political climate which obviously has become so much more hostile towards immigrants over the past couple of years, with resettlement to the US frozen at this moment.
As for Spanish non-profit Luchando PPP @luchando_ppp, I discovered them, as many other animal shelters, through the incredible photography work of @andreslopezphoto. The Spanish law on “potentially dangerous dogs” is recognized by canine experts as scientifically unsound and highly discriminatory, condemning dogs pertaining to these races to lifetimes in shelters, given that the administrative requirements and daily obligations linked to their possession makes their adoption even more difficult than for so-called regular dogs,  in a Spanish context which is already totally saturated with dogs in adoption at (mostly) private shelters.
I really hope you will consider joining these 2 initiatives todays.

Again massive thanks to @attenboroughctr , @kanearis and anyone who has already contributed.
Gear: @moogsynthesizers Grandmother, MF-104M Delay, @squarpinstruments Hapax