colleen

SPECIAL VERSIONS LIVE AT ACCA, BRIGHTON: 6TH DECEMBER BANDCAMP FRIDAY FUNDRAISING FOR PALESTINE + THE HISTORY OF “MON COEUR”

Even though I didn’t technically make a “special version” of “Mon coeur”, I have decided to include it in this release, as I have played it live only for the past 8 shows or so, and the way it builds up until it reaches the actual album synthesis settings still feels magical to me, with the added PA and ambiant room sounds of ACCA taking it to another level soundwise (🙏🙏🙏 @kanearis )… the spring reverb kicking in every time I’m patching is an acquired taste I suppose!😅

The song feels extra special to me as it is a symbol of what synthesis has meant for me on a personal and musical level. I originally wrote it on the Yamaha Reface YC in 2020 and it was going to be the last song on my previous album The Tunnel and the Clearing (2021), until I made a last minute decision to ditch it in favor of making the album shorter and ending it with “Hidden in the Current”, so that both the record and its ending would be more impactful given its main theme (the end of a relationship and the necessary rebirth that has to come from it).

When I started work on Le jour et la nuit du réel, right after The Tunnel was released, I didn’t know yet I was going to end up focusing purely on synthesis, with only the Moog Grandmother and 2 delays as my tools, but in a very natural way, it was the melody of “Mon coeur” that I first recreated on the Grandmother, with some necessary changes due to the shorter keyboard, and it was this song that served as my main playground for synthesis experiments in the early stages of the album. I probably ended with about 12 different versions, and in the end settled on this gentle version which, weirdly enough, is also (in my opinion) the only song on the whole album that has a “classical Moog sound”, especially when the moodulation enterss in.

Can’t wait to share the whole project with you, in both audio and video, next week, fundraising for Palestine.

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!