colleen

SPECIAL VERSIONS LIVE IN ACCA, BRIGHTON: BANDCAMP EXCLUSIVE RELEASE FOR HUMANITARIAN CAUSES – 6th DECEMBER LAUNCH FOR PALESTINE.
Yesterday on my Instagram, when posting the below video as a reel, I wrote “I am usually a woman of many words, but for once I will use my words sparingly.” Well, given that this website is the one platform that I use that is not controlled by social media giants, I will have to add a few more words than in my initial post: my reel has clearly been hidden /censored (call it whatever you will) from Instagram, and this morning when I uploaded the video on Youtube, the same thing happened. So in the end, I removed the offending word – “Palestine” – from my text, in the hope that this won’t be censored as much. The word “Palestine” is still in the video itself, and I don’t know if whatever technology it is that verifies content is also able to scan words embedded within a video, and frankly, I am not even sure I want to know, as I find the whole thing utterly depressing, with the added twist that of course, the irony of complaining about these platforms while still using them is not lost on me.

As you know, I don’t usually ask you my readers and listeners to actually “like” a post or video, but this time, if you do, whether on Instagram (reel is here) or Youtube (VIDEO BELOW or here), it will definitely help make the project more visible, which ultimately will help the fundraising, which is what this is about.

Here is the post as I wrote it yesterday:
I really hope you will join me on 6th December for this audio and video project which means a lot to me musically and humanly. 
As with my animal shelters initiative, this is meant to be a project in perpetuity in which 100% of proceeds go to organizations operating on the ground, starting with help for Palestine on the next Bandcamp Friday 6th December.
These are new exclusive versions based on songs from my last album Le jour et la nuit du réel @thrilljockey , in both audio and video, recorded at the wonderful @attenboroughctr in Brighton earlier this month, and will not be available anywhere else.
Massive thanks to Kane Aris @kanearis for capturing this performance and for his help, kindness and patience on working on this with me, ACCA @attenboroughctr for authorizing the use of this recording and Laura Ducceschi @la_ducceschi for inviting me to perform.

A post in Spanish :-)))

SPECIAL VERSIONS LIVE IN L’AUTOMÀTICA, BARCELONA, 27 DE OCTUBRE 2024, O EL AMOR A LA CERCANÍA
Si fuera por mí, en cada concierto estaría rodeada de las personas del público, mirando encima de mis espaldas lo que estoy haciendo. Amo la sensación de cercanía, porque va junta de la mano con la sensación de confianza: confianza en los demás, confianza en ti misma, confianza de que esto – hacer musica en directo – es algo a la vez simple y profundo. 
En realidad son pocos los contextos que permiten una tal cercanía, pero este concierto, cocido a fuego lento, lo ha permitido de una manera que me ha dejado llena de paz y ilusión.

Ana @anabananadj del programa de radio @amuletosradio me había hablado desde principios del año de su intención de montar un evento para celebrar su programa, y le dije enseguida que podría contar con migo, ya que me había ayudado y apoyado en varias ocasiones, y me gustaba el carácter más personal de su programa, que pide a los invitados de elegir sus “músicas amuletos”. No se trata de brillar por originalidad o buen gusto, sino de pensar de manera más intima sobre que músicas han resonado o resuenan fuerte para ti.
Había oído hablar de @l_automatica , una imprenta tipográfica gestionada por un colectivo en Gracia, desde ya hace tiempo, pero no había ido a ningún evento alli, hasta que fue a ver a uno de mis músicos favoritos de Barcelona, Jordi Gegé @jordigege , en Septiembre.
Durante el concierto, rodeadas de las bellísimas máquinas y del olor a tinta, me giré hacia Ana y le dije “Estoy viendo el Space Echo aqui”. Cuando resultó que una de las personas del colectivo, Renata aka @ninja.papel , era fan de mi música, cualquier duda se fue volando.

🙏🙏🙏 📷 @rodrigo_notari @amuletosradio @ninja.papel @l_automatica y vosotr@s por la onda ❤❤❤

I had everything ready to roll for my own “Mellotron version” which I’ll play live in Barcelona, London and Brighton very soon (details below) when Sol decided – as  usual – to participate in my music-making, and I just hit record on both Reaper and my mobile phone.
I love that his random bum, body and paw notes are usually spot-on, then go into completely unpredictable territory, and in this case he must have landed on some interesting parameter of the @squarpinstruments Hapax at second 33′ and I seriously wish i knew what it was!
@moogsynthesizers Grandmother into @soundgasltd Roland RE-201 Space Echo.

27th October – Barcelona, L’Automatica @l_automatica  presented by Amuletos @amuletosradio –  1 pm midday show
1st November – London, Grand Junction @grandjunctionw2  presented by Baba Yaga’s Hut @babayagashutlondon
2nd November – Brighton, Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts  @attenboroughctr

I am coming out of my “summer hibernation” with a short series of videos to give you a glimpse of the special versions of Le jour et la nuit du réel which spontaneously arose during my many hours of rehearsal for this album’s shows, and which I’ll play in Barcelona on 27th October, London 1st November and a tiny bit in Brighton too on 2nd November. DETAILS HERE OR HERE.

Rehearsing can often feel like dwelling on the past, but with synthesis it almost inevitably becomes an occasion to expand skills and ideas as happy parameter-and-patching accidents can and do happen, especially on the journey from one song to another if you keep the sound on all the time.
Le jour was already born from that process of intensive experimentation of “versions” over 14 months, so in the end, I have chosen to keep “special versions” for only the 3 movements of “Subterranean” and “Les parenthèses enchantées IV”, but I am super happy with how they all “reverse” the mood of the original: “Subterranean” goes from energetic and raw to dream-like and psychedelic, while “Parenthèses” goes from slowly meditative to bouncey and danceable (well, danceable for me anyway). 
The Echo is intentionally clipping HARD on this, as per the @soundgasltd rule and I love the pure drive you get when just turning down the Echo volume and feedback.
Beat on Grandmother appears with Mod set to Square, max PWM, mod wheel at max and Osc 2 on Narrow Pulse.

In other news, thanks to your purchases on Bandcamp Friday of 4th October, for which I pledged 100% of income to Beloved Asheville to help in the aftermath of hurricane Helene in the town of Asheville and surroundings, I was able to send 250$ to the friend of a friend of a friend (not kidding!) who works at a big company that has pledged to double match any donation going towards hurricane Helene relief, meaning a TOTAL OF 750$ were sent to the organization. Once again THANK YOU SO MUCH to anyone who joined me on this!

Dear newsletter readers, I have been taking a long and much needed break from communicating, which I am breaking today on the occasion of a new Bandcamp Friday, for which I am fundraising to help the Asheville, North Carolina, community that has been severely affected by hurricane Helene. BANDCAMP HERE but also here on my website with players neatly stacked on top of each other.

I am copying below the message I sent to my Bandcamp followers today:

Dear everyone

I hope this message finds you as well as possible within the world’s current context.

As you may have noticed, I took a break from actively fundraising for animal rescues: fundraising takes a lot of energy, even something as seemingly simple as what I did here on Bandcamp Fridays, and I felt that after a whole year of doing this, even after adding several songs to the initiative, I had kind of run into a “closed loop”. You can still donate, but I will wait until I have a sizeable chunk of donations to choose an animal rescue organization.

Today though, I have decided to HELP THE ASHEVILLE COMMUNITY, which has been awfully struck by hurricane Helene. Now those of you reading this from the States will be aware of the events, but I think a lot of people in Europe and outside the States haven’t necessarily heard about it, so in a nutshell, this is a massive natural disaster and the situation is and will remain extremely serious for months, with Asheville residents being told they won’t have water for another 6 to 8 weeks, people living in isolated areas unable to receive help, and abundant serious health issues, from contaminated mud to people being unable to receive their treatment, whether that be dialysis, methadone, oxygen supply, etc. 

As some of you may remember, I was lucky enough to stay in Asheville for a couple of days in 2017, when I was invited by Moog to play in their Moog Soundlab. Since then the place and people who live there have had a special place in my heart.

Therefore today Bandcamp Friday, I WILL GIVE 100% OF MY INCOME FOR ANY PURCHASE OF MY ALBUMS TO “BELOVED ASHEVILLE”, an organization that was recommended to me by people on the ground. Not only that, but I will be able to send this money and have this donation MATCHED BY X 2 (not giving details on this setup, but this will be an incredible way to maximize your dollars).

For purposes of clarity: 

– 100% of my income is 50% of what you pay (Thrill Jockey, the label that releases my records, operates a 50/50 share policy). This will be after Paypal commission.

– The albums are ALL THE ALBUMS + MUSIC BOX EP on the Bandcamp page.

Excluded are the FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS songs and Solar/Stellar remix EP.

– Please remember: Thrill Jockey run the sales of physical items on my Bandcamp *from the US*, so sadly, this means shipping costs will be prohibitive for people outside the US (and obviously, what you pay for shipping goes towards shipping, and is not a donation). If you are outside the US, I would encourage you to purchase digitally.

A massive hug from me to you

Cécile