colleen

I apologize for abandoning the newsletter and news section of this website this past month: the truth is that between the whirlwind that was the Chiquita Room weekend, maintaining both Instagram and Facebook (thankfully with the same content published in one go), all my other promotion duties, ongoing admin stuff that never ceases, daily life AND the fact that I really dislike the new WordPress editor which has made everything way more complicated than need be and is trying to charge its users for almost any useful feature, it’s been hard to find the energy to keep updating this website. However, I know that some of you are not into social media, and hopefully maintaining a website and newsletter does make sense in this day and age, so… here we go: a massive update which I’ll try to keep going throughout this week, in both the news section and the various sections of the website that need updating.

First things first, The Tunnel and the Clearing, my 7th album, and 3rd for Thrill Jockey Records, was released on May 21st.

Making this album has meant so much to me both musically and personally, in a way that I’ve touched upon in various recent interviews which I’ll link to in the next post. Having the actual physical product out in the world was also its own challenge due to Covid’s ongoing repercussions on the music industry and especially the waiting period in vinyl pressing plants: you had to wait a lot before Covid, and now it’s even worse, with apparently no end to this problem in sight since there is simply too much demand for pressing plants’ capacities.

I also know that many of you in Europe received your preordered album late, so I thank you for your patience and understanding. The state of postal and courrier services – as well as their overwhelming cost to both businesses and customers – is another thing that I could rant about, but I won’t. I will just say this though: thank you for parting with your hard-earned cash, there is never any obligation to buy a record and now more than ever, I personally appreciate the gesture even more.

If you wish to purchase the album in a way that benefits the label and myself most directly, you have the choice between the label’s own webshop (which ships from both the US and the EU – so take that into consideration when it comes to shipping costs) and Bandcamp, with orders shipping only from the US (so beware of shipping costs to Europe ). Tote bag only available from the US sadly.

The record looks glorious in its vinyl version, and I also love how incredibly elegant the CD version is. Andrés Gómez Servín is the Mexican artist responsible for both the artwork and design. Do check out the rest of his work, including his amazing cyanotypes.

That unicorn. I’ve had my sights on her for as long as I can remember. I’ve tried the gentle approach: it hasn’t worked. I tried the drastic approach once, 12 years ago, with mixed results: I removed stress, but also a great part of my identity by removing too much work, which… led to stress. Fast forward to now and this impossible-to-ignore realization: work-related chronic stress has been my own personal mental gangrene for 20 years now. A 20-year-old gangrene does not look nor smell pretty. How have I managed to keep going that way? At great cost. So it’s not a small temporary band aid that I need: amputation is what I need. In much the same way I’d want to keep my leg if I did have real gangrene, I’d love to keep playing live (one of my two professional legs – the other being making records), forever. But the thing is I’m me, and I have this problem with handling stress. No amount of wishful thinking, nor all the things I do to reduce my stress and be somehow “different”, is going to change the fundamental way in which I operate at certain basic levels.

The Barcelona shows at Chiquita Room to celebrate the release of the new album are of course still happening, and I’ll try to make the London show at King’s Place on 7th August a fitting “goodbye for now”. Indeed, in my head this is not a “forever” decision, and although – to state the obvious – there is no knowing what the future will be made of, I’d like to think that it is precisely this retirement right now that will enable me – if I have the good luck of being alive and well and if we haven’t destroyed the planet completely by then – to be back at some point, let’s say, in the 2030s?

This decision has been harder to make and announce than I anticipated, and has made me feel like writing a long series of posts: not a litany in the “touring-is-so-hard” style (I have little sympathy for that). Instead, time cost, self-care, self-love, self-image – stuff that we can all relate to.

Those of you who been to my shows know it anyway, but I do THANK YOU, again, for being part of one of the things I’ve most loved doing in my life.

Post in English + Castellano abajo! 

I am so thrilled to finally give you all the details on the 3-day celebration of the release of The Tunnel and the Clearing at Chiquita Room! It’s the first time I get the chance to do this, I get the sense it might possibly be the last time too since people and circumstances have to align for this sort of stuff to happen, and I guess that in a weird way, Covid is in great part responsible for this happening :-) So, without further ado, what will you get?

• Me smiling and all this gear – Sol the cat not included
• 6 concerts performing the new album, 2 each day – LIMITED CAPACITY – ALL BOOKING DETAILS IN LIVE SECTION: 

5-7 pm: live show + technical demonstration + Q and A (in English and Spanish)

8-9 pm: live show

Regarding the “tech demonstration”, think super informal workshop: showing you in as much detail as you want the way I played and produced the album, with an opportunity to see up close a rare machine (I don’t think there are many Elka Drummer Ones in Barcelona… ) and some not-so-common analog gear such as a Space Echo in perfect working order and the now discontinued Moogerfoogers (which, by the way, I was officially asked to celebrate in a session at Moog Soundlab Studio back in 2017).

In the Q and A I will welcome all types of questions, whether artistic (and these can be on my older albums too) or on other subjects I’m passionate about, such as the mental and physical health of musicians, more down-to-earth aspects of the music business such as labels and publishing, etc.

Also on the menu: 

• screening of Daniel Barreto’s mind-expanding animation video for “Hidden in the Current” and Luis Torroja’s minidocumentary on the album 
• limited screenprint edition of Andrés Gómez Servín’s original artwork
• records galore: limited white and gold vinyl of The Tunnel + CDs, vinyl of A flame my love, a frequency and Captain of none, vinyl and CD of the hard-to-get The Weighing of the Heart
• super limited edition tote bag of the new album 

Will you join us?

CASTELLANO

Estoy muy emocionada de poder por fin daros todos los detalles sobre la celebración de 3 días que hemos planificado para la salida de The Tunnel and the Clearing en Chiquita Room! Es la primera vez que tengo la oportunidad de hacer algo así, y tengo la sensación que posiblemente será también la última, dado que la gente y las circunstancias se tienen que “alinear” para que pase algo asi, y creo que de cierta manera, el Covid es en gran parte responsable de este evento :-) Pero sin más preámbulos, que os propongo?

• Yo con esta sonrisa y todo este material – Sol el gato no queda incluido.
• 6 conciertos tocando el nuevo disco, 2 por dia – AFORO LIMITADO – DETALLES DE RESERVA EN LA BIO:

17h-19h: concierto + demostración técnica + Q and A (en Inglés y Castellano)

20-21h: concierto

Con “demostración técnica”, se entiende un especie de taller muy informal: enseñándoos con todos los detalles que queréis la manera en que toqué y produje mi disco, con la oportunidad de ver de muy cerca una máquina muy poco común (no creo que haya muchas Elka Drummer Ones en Barcelona…) y material análogo tampoco muy frecuente como un Space Echo en perfecta condición y los ahora-discontinuados Moogerfoogers (que, por cierto, me invitaron a celebrar en el Moog Soundlab Studio en 2017 – enlace en bio).

En el Q and A están bienvenidos todos tipos de preguntas, tanto artísticas (incluso sobre mis discos anteriores) como sobre otros aspectos que me apasionan, como la salud mental y física del músico, aspectos más prácticos del music business como discográficas y edición/derechos de autor, etc

También en el menú:

• proyección del mind-expanding (no sé cómo decirlo en Castellano!) video de animación de Daniel Barreto para “Hidden in the Current” y del mini-docu de Luis Torroja sobre mi disco.
• serigrafía limitada del artwork original de Andrés Gómez Servín para la portada
• lluvia de discos: vinilos en edición limitada oro y blanco de The Tunnel + CDs, vinilos de A flame my love, a frequency y Captain of none, vinilos y CDs del no-fácil-de-encontrar The Weighing of the Heart.
• edición súper limitada de tote bags del nuevo disco.

Te apuntas? Gracias desde el corazón a la gran Laura . Foto del también grande Luis Torroja. 

“Hidden in the Current” is the closer of my new album The Tunnel and the Clearing, its sonic and emotional climax, with Hammond organ and oscillators from the Moog Grandmother joining forces through filtering and modulation: awakening to a hard but inevitable truth, owning it, and realizing that ultimately, all life experiences – positive and negative, joyful and painful – are “hidden in the current / Where all things grow / Even on their own” (full lyrics and list of gear at the end of this post).

But today I have the immense pleasure not just of sharing a new song with you, but also presenting an animation video which I think stands as a work of art in its own right. 

When I discovered Mexican artist Daniel Barreto’s work last year – and in particular his amazing animations –  I was just starting to record the album’s songs in their definitive versions, and I immediately sensed he’d be the perfect person to translate visually what I was trying to do sonically. I just didn’t know he would actually surpass my expectations. 

Please put on a pair of headphones or plug into a good amp and watch this in hi def on a good screen: I hope you will find the warmth of these colourful vibrations as moving and intoxicating as I do.

Gear list: Yamaha Reface YC into Moog Grandmother into MF-104M Analog Delay, vocals (single-tracked, then double-tracked) into MF-104M.

“I am waking

I finally woke up

And stood on my own

It was hidden in the current

Where all things flow

It was hidden in the current

Where all things go

It was hidden in the current

Where all things grow

Even on their own”

Given the seemingly unending pandemic, it is with great emotion and slight disbelief that I am announcing what seems impossible even to me: a real live show in London, in beautiful Kings Place, full capacity. The London audience has always had a soft spot in my heart: my largest audience in Europe, and one of the most enthusiastic too (I’ll never forget the show at St John’s on Bethnal Green in December 2017: I’d never seen an atmosphere like that in a church and even asked the audience if they’d been handed something illegal before entering, such was their cheerful attitude! :-))) So needless to say I will try to make this show as special as possible. Tickets and details here.

To illustrate this excellent news, what could be more appropriate than more excellent news? Luis Torroja has almost completed the editing of our minidocumentary on my new album The Tunnel and the Clearing, and here’s a tiny snippet for your pleasure, a section of the opening track “The Crossing”, featuring the Elka Drummer One and Space Echo.

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A post shared by colleen – Cécile Schott, musician (@colleenplays)

Earlier this month, I also finally changed the tape of my beloved RE201 Space Echo: the tape it came with when I first got it in December 2019, the tape that accompanied me throughout the making of The Tunnel and the Clearing  and which I didn’t change *on purpose* even though it sounded used and tired – I felt the same way, and thought there couldn’t be a better symbol of what I was going through than to keep literally repeating with that tape.
After I finished the album, I felt a strange resistance to actually changing it, but I have finally done it… I’ll stop the talking and let the pics of those beautiful innards do the talking. In order of appearance from 2 onwards: old tape, tape “trajectory” details, new tape straight out of its box looking quite like a Yin/Yang symbol, then finally set up to run. It sounds beautiful 😃