colleen

So happy to share a 3rd mix (1 more to go!) for McGill’s University’s radio station CKUT in Montreal for the “If you got ears” programme at the kind request of guest-host Jean Cousin who not only makes music as Joni Void but also runs his own excellent Everyday Ago label and like me is a passionate listener and mix-maker. Mixes are time-consuming and after 3 hours of selection already (you can still listen to the mixes I made for NTS, Dublab and Dublab.es – all links in the mix section), I really had to think hard about what this new one-hour mix could be.. and as I always, I ended up being pushed to revisit the music I love and have sometimes forgotten, and feeling grateful for the chance.

So this is a 60s special. You don’t need me to explain to you how important and utterly unique that decade was for music. I personally truly fell in love with music as an art form (as opposed to something I loved listening to on the radio, but had no clue about it being a composed, performed and recorded artifact) when I first heard The Beatles’ “A day in the life”. If I had to choose one song that changed my life this would be it – in a very literal way since I credit *that* song and no other for making me want to make music.

The mix will be archived on the programme’s page straight after broadcast and later on the Everyday ago mixcloud.

60S SPECIAL TRACKLIST
Michael Yonkers – Tripping Through The Rose Gardens
The 13th Floor Elevators – Don’t Fall Down
Cold Sun – Twisted Flower
Red Crayola – Hurricane Fighter Plane
Silver Apples – Oscillations
The Electric Prunes – I Had Too MuchTo Dream Last Night
Love – My Little Red Book
The Factory – Gone
Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera – Mother Writes
The Poets – Some Things I Can’t Forget
The Human Expression – Every Night
West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – I Won’t Hurt You
The Troggs – Our Love Will Still Be There
The Zombies – Leave Me Be
Arthur Lee Harper- Open Up The Door
The Kinks – I Go To Sleep (Demo)
The Peep Show – Morning
The Factory – Path Through The Forest (Demo)
The 13th Floor Elevators – May The Circle Remain Unbroken
The Troggs – Love Is All Around
The Beatles – A Day In The Life

Due to the ongoing 10-day quarantine obligation for non-vaccinated-in-the-UK citizens entering the UK, we have sadly had to decide to postpone my 7th August show at London’s Kingsplace . We debated on whether we should announce a new date, but I personally pushed for no actual date to be announced, because what is the point of announcing a date when we have zero clue about what the future holds, since it is not just the Covid situation we have to take into account, but also the errr… how shall I put it… “bizarre” UK political decisions.

When I learnt I was going to be fully vaccinated several weeks before the show, I felt so good, as I naively assumed that this would exempt me from quarantine. Indeed, back in March when I had been offered the show, this was the first thing I raised with the team at Kings Place, but of course, we all felt fairly confident that by August, surely this quarantine would not be mandatory anymore, at least not for fully-vaccinated people…

It feels weird to postpone this show given it was going to be my final show for many years, if not ever (I know that some of you have missed this news, since you are leaving messages such as “Hope you come and play in X place one day”, so just so you know: I won’t play live any more after this show, which was the only one I accepted), but at this stage 1) I’d rather we were sure that we can fulfill the new date when we do announce it 2) I’d rather do this show next year and perhaps even get the chance to play 2 new albums 3) In the grand scheme of things, considering how prolonged this whole Covid situation is, and the much more serious ramifications it has for so many people… well I really don’t feel like adding to the ocean of already-existing complaints.

You can retain the tickets or obtain a refund, as you choose. Thanks so much in advance for your understanding, and see you in London AT SOME POINT

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.