colleen

THE TUNNEL AND THE CLEARING DREAM TEAM… MEXICAN CONNECTION NUMBER 1: ANDRÉS GÓMEZ SERVÍN

I had been meaning to write these two posts for so long! I may make music on my own, but I certainly don’t release albums on my own, and for this record at one point I actually sat down to make a list of where my collaborators were working from, because I was so struck by the geographical expansiveness of it, and for sure the pandemic made this even more moving: I work from Barcelona, and Luis Torroja who made the press photos and the forthcoming mini documentary is just north of the city in Montgat, but Antony Ryan of Isan and Redredpaw Mastering who mastered the record (and always ends up giving me tons of super useful advice) is in Fredericia, Denmark; Thrill Jockey Records is based in Chicago, but the European head of operations Matt Fidler with whom I coordinate a lot is based in Berlin; and last but not least, for the first time in my music, Mexico added itself to this list, with the artwork and design being created in CDMX by Andrés Gómez Servín, and the animation video for “Hidden in the Current” created in Guadalajara by Daniel Barreto.

Working with Mexican artists was a huge discovery for me: I had no idea that the country harboured so much creative talent, and feel so lucky that I was able to ease into new artwork for my music with Andrés, whose output is very varied, but so coherent and subtle: among other things I am a fan of his amazing cyanotypes, as well as the books he publishes with his own publishing company Mixed Media Press!

Here are a few pictures of the original artwork (1, 3, 4), made with acrylic paint sprayed on Fabriano paper, which to me now represents the album so closely that I can’t imagine any other cover art for it, as well as the super limited screenprint edition (2), available from Chiquita Room (international shipping available): the texture of the paper is so amazing and I hate reflections from glass frames so much that for my own print I decided to go for a kakemono/kakejiku style by just hanging it in this way, and I love the resulting elegance.

THE TUNNEL AND THE CLEARING DREAM TEAM… MEXICAN CONNECTION NUMBER 2: DANIEL BARRETO

Few things are as inspiring as other people doing their own thing really well and with passion, even outside the field of art: there just is something incredibly attractive about visible passion, and when I encountered Daniel’s work, it immediately had that uplifting effect on me.

Daniel was kind enough to send me this timelapse showing a tiny bit of his work process for the animation he made for “Hidden in the Current”, using Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. This is only one of the many ways in which he animates, and his work encompasses different styles and media, so I strongly encourage you to take some time and enjoy his Instagram feed as if it were a permanent online exhibition.

Here is what I wrote for the video’s press release back in April:

I discovered Daniel’s work last year through Instagram when he started to follow my account: I immediately fell in love with the vitality of his art and his multidisciplinary approach, but it was his animation work (both the short animations that he generates for himself, often using his own excellent music, and a video he’d done for Y la bamba, which really moved me) that particularly struck me as unique, incredibly inventive, powerful and poetic at the same time.

I immediately sensed he would know how to translate the music of my new album visually, and his video for “Hidden in the Current” has surpassed all my expectations: Daniel has come up with a kind of vibrant, warm abstraction which is the perfect equivalent of what I try to do in my own music, and in the process has perfectly transmitted the essence of what “Hidden in the Current” is about. For me his animation takes the song to an even higher level, in which bodily sensations can be experienced and unconscious meanings uncovered.

9 ODD QUESTIONS FOR MUSIC GEAR JUNKIES

I had the pleasure of doing a gear-centered interview (but we also talk about process!) for Martin Yam Moller’s website in his 9 Odd Question for Music Gear Junkies series. In which you will learn the replies to questions as essential as: what is my favourite knob/fader/switch on a piece of gear or if I have an “almost” perfect piece of kit and what I would change about it… The interview features photos from the forthcoming mini-documentary by Luis Torroja on the album.

PARGUELAND: INTO THE TUNNEL – ENTREVISTA AUDIO EN ESPAÑOL

También tuvé el placer de estar de vuelta en Pargueland en dublab.es para – esta vez sí! – hablar de mi nuevo albúm con Jorge Páez. Estuvé en el programa el mes pasado con una selección de música jamaicana (todavía se puede escuchar el episodio en el archivo de mi web en la sección LIVE SESSIONS AND INTERVIEWS ) y se nos pasó el tiempo volando, así que con Jorge Paez, el host del programa, decidimos repetir para concentrarnos sobre The Tunnel and the Clearing. Tuvimos que grabar el programa al último momento en mi estudio, por – como no – problema de Covid que obligó Dublab.es a cerrar temporariamente su estudio en Barcelona.

Es mi primera entrevista larga audio en Español, y me alegro mucho de esto, ya que tengo público también en muchos países hispanófonos, y aunque mucha gente hoy en día entiende el Inglés, pues al vivir en España desde ya 11 años y estar conociendo cada vez más gente de países de América Latina y incluso colaborar con ellos, tiene tanta lógica para mi hablar del disco en este idioma. Espero que lo disfrutéis tanto como nosotros al hacerlo!

One of the best surprises of my 2020 was getting to know Chiquita Room and the generous and energetic person behind it, Laura González Palacios. Chiquita Room is a unique place in Barcelona’s cultural landscape, and when I gave Laura an advance copy of The Tunnel and the Clearing and she asked me very shortly afterwards if I was into the idea of presenting the album at the gallery, I immediately said yes, even though neither one of us had any idea what we would do exactly, and I had never “presented” an album as such.

In the end, the “Colleen in da room” weekend became longer and fuller than anything we could have imagined, and I’m so glad about that, even though it was very intense physically and mentally: 6 shows over 3 days, 3 informal workshops, 2 Q&As… and I not only performed but also did the sound, bringing all the necessary gear and even a PA from my studio. We also showed the amazing video made by Daniel Barreto for “Hidden in the Current”, and the gallery produced a limited screenprint edition of the album’s original artwork by Andrés Gómez Servín.

As I expected, performing the entire album live is totally doable, though technically challenging – you can see below a list that I made while rehearsing of all the potential problems that can crop up and how to troubleshoot them.

If you are an Instagram user, you can see many short videos in the LIVE highlights of my Instagram.

On top of that, I had some misadventures with my beloved and so far totally trustworthy Roland RE-201 Space Echo, which led to a ton of stress, interaction with an incompetent and super rude technician here in Barcelona who made things considerably worse, and finally a temporary repair by yours truly, to a sound quality which I deemed acceptable for the shows (more about this in a future post). This confirmed that working with vintage gear is not for the faint-hearted, and that wanting to perform with vintage gear is potentially even more fraught with problems, given that by definition, the gear needs to be in good condition for the day of the show.

The setting was super intimate (attendance was limited to 15 people in the audience), and since I had already decided to stop live playing in the future, I savoured every minute for what it was.

I especially loved the informal workshops, as people could finally get real close to the machine and see what I was doing, and it was a treat to see eyes light up when I was demonstrating the Elka Drummer One on its own or when I removed the cover at the top of the Space Echo and people could see the tape loop doing its beautiful serpentine dance.

All the photos are from the 23rd May afternoon show, workshop and Q&A, and were taken by Lili Marsans/Lilinterna.

Inexplicably I did not make any mixes at the time of my 6th album A flame my love, a frequency, which means that these are my first mixes since 2015! All photos by Luis Torroja.

NTS MIX (broadcast 28th May 2021)

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/colleen-26th-may-2021

The NTS mix is a trip to Japan, Nigeria, Senegal, Zimbabwe, the UK and the US through some of the music that keeps inspiring me, in terms of sound production, instrumentation and playing style, and unusual or freeform song structure.

• NTS TRACKLIST
• Colleen – The crossing
• Juju Gyps – Hakoari no uta 
• The Servants – Everybody has a dream 
• Mission of Burma – Trem two 
• Ahleuchatistas – Vanished 
• King Sunny Ade – Syncro System Movement 
• Star Number One de Dakar – Mathiaki 
• The Green Arrows – Madzangaradzimu 
• Alhadji Haruna Ishola And His Apala Group – Late Matthew Toye 
• Antipop Consortium – Heatrays 
• Shun – Landscapes #3  

TUNNEL INFLUENCES MIX + INTERVIEW FOR DUBLAB CELSIUS DROP (broadcast 17th June 2021)

https://www.dublab.com/archive/frosty-w-colleen-celsius-drop-06-17-21

Ever since my first album back in 2003, Dublab co-founder Frosty’s support has been unwavering: mixes, interviews, two live sessions, and also co-hosting my last LA show at Zebulon in 2017… I never take this type of “loyalty” and generosity for granted or something that I’m “due” in any way, and am floored that relationships like this can exist in the music world, where the support received goes way beyond the idea of “promotion”, and feels more like an extended friendship via music.

I absolutely love Mark’s beautiful words on the album, “an archive of personal transformation humming with the resonance of a soul realigned through sound”, and hope you will enjoy our interview (in spite of me stupidly recording it with a microphone way too close to my mouth, which means it’s plosive festival),  and most of all I hope you will enjoy what I think is perhaps one of my FINEST MIXES yet: I put so much love into it, and I have two things to say about it. One: it’s kind of a Heartbreak Special, which sounds cheesy, but so many musical gems were born out of heartbreak… Two: during the making of The Tunnel and the Clearing, even though I listened to very little music, I felt accompanied, as if by a friendly ghostly presence, by *all* the music I’ve ever listened to. I think the album distills my many influences into a coherent sound, and this mix throws as precise a light as can be on the type of musical jewels which acted as “beacons” for me. I’m leaving you the tracklist below, though I do encourage you to first listen to the mix without looking at said tracklist, so you can enjoy the surprising links I created across songs…

• DUBLAB – TUNNEL INFLUENCES MIX TRACKLIST
• The Green Arrows – Dororengu Rinonaka 
• O.V. Wright – Gone For Good
• Low – Heartbeat 
• The Blue Rondos – Little Baby 
• Hermanos Tuirán – Lluvia 
• Can – Spoon 
• Canned Heat – Poor Moon 
• Silver Apples – Love Fingers 
• Suicide – Cheree 
• Stereolab – Doubt 
• Delia Derbyshire – Dr Who Theme 
• The Beach Boys – God Only Knows (Stack-O-Vocals) 
• Wendy Rene – After Laughter
• Marvin L.Sims – Danger 
• Stevie Wonder – I Don’t Know Why (I Love You) 
• The Upsetters – Too Bad Cow 
• Tindersticks – Marbles 
• Talk Talk – I Believe In You 
• Low – Tomorrow One 

JAMAICAN SELECTION FOR DUBLAB.ES PARGUELAND (broadcast 4th June 2021)

https://dublab.es/shows/pargueland/04-06-21

I was also invited to Pargueland, a programme on Dublab.es, Dublab’s Barcelona-based little sister, and chose some Jamaican songs and chatted about the selection with the host Jorge Paez (a second programme is coming with an interview on the new album on 2nd July).

• PARGUELAND TRACKLIST
• The Upsetters – Scratch Walking – 1976, unknown format
• Ranking Devon – Death Ballarena – Death Ballarena 7’’ (Reggae Connection,1977)
• Burning Spear – Call On You – Rocking Time (Studio One, 1974)
• Tapper Zukie – I King Zukie – Man Ah Warrior (Count Shelly, 1973)
• Ras Michael And The Sons Of Negus – Wicked Got To Go – Love Thy Neighbour (Jah Life, 1979)
• Lloyd Robinson – It Deep (Extended Play) – It Deep 7″ (Studio One, 1978)
• Bullwackies All Stars – Morning Star – Black World Dub (Hardwax Records, 1979)
• Scientist vs. Prince Jammy – Round 1 – Big Showdown (Greensleeves, 1980)

I’ve had the pleasure of being asked some really interesting questions on both the new album and my entire output for several media outlets across various countries and in several languages, and this has been such a positive, heartwarming experience: at bottom, every artist hopes that their work will be understood and appreciated, and it has felt incredible to feel this so strongly on an album that has such deep personal roots and which I also see as a kind of “sum” of my musical influences and past work.

To also have all of my 7 albums celebrated – with an actual Bandcamp Daily retrospective and an 8-page article in Italian magazine Blow Up – has led me to feeling even more gratitude: I had no expectation when I started work on what became my first album, Everyone alive wants answers, back in 2002, that it would even see the light of day as an album, let alone be the start of a long adventure, and still be talked about and listened to almost 20 years down the line.

Here’s a list of all the interviews so far, in English except where mentioned, starting with the most indepth one for Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast.

Bandcamp Daily retrospective “Colleen guides her through her fearless discography”

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/colleen-discography-list

The Quietus (UK), “Taking stock: Colleen’s favourite albums”

https://thequietus.com/articles/29959-colleen-interview-favourite-music

Tush Magazine (Germany), “Between beauty, Brancusi and breakup”

https://tushmagazine.com/between-beauty-brancusi-and-breakup/

Rock Delux (Spain), “El arte de desaparecer” – Spanish

https://www.rockdelux.com/musica/colleen–el-arte-de-desaparecer

Blow Up (Italy), 8-page retrospective (you need to buy the issue to read the whole article) – Italian

https://www.blowupmagazine.com/cont/colleen.asp

Magic (France), “Colleen: la création artistique, une thérapie obligée” – French

https://www.magicrpm.com/colleen-la-creation-artistique-une-therapie-obligee/