colleen

I have another 4 months of studio work ahead of me to finish my 9th album @thrilljockey , which is more than half-completed by now in terms of composition and synthesis. I haven’t hit the Record button yet on the final sessions (though I do record everything as I work through ideas), for the good reason that making music via synthesis is like exploring the Amazon: you know you won’t be able to explore all of it in your lifetime, but the sweet spots and surprises you find along the way, you want to be sure to include them in your research paper – or, in this case, my album – and I know I will be learning until the very last minute 🤓
As always I can’t wait to share the final results with you and take this to stages in spring 2026. I now book myself worldwide except North America @groundcontroltouring , so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me directly. 
I am also toying with the idea of giving more @moogsynthesizers Matriarch deep dive and synthesis workshops in cities where I’ll be playing, so feel free to contact me about this too!

This will be the album opener and although I am nowhere near finished with it, I love the patching ideas on it: it is my most complex patch so far and I’m so happy the months of studying tutorials – as well as preparing the workshop I gave at @elevatorsound_eu last month – are paying off in terms of gaining patching autonomy and actual understanding of what I’m doing, as opposed to a more haphazard trial-and-error process (which it obviously still is for me, but to a much lesser extent than before). Patching now feels organic and second nature, and if you’ve been learning synthesis, you’ll know how amazing that feels!
I also wanted to share this particular song because I disabled the keyboard from the sequencer through MIDI settings, in great part inspired by @gabechurray who has a super clear tutorial on it, and by allowing playing the keyboard on top of the sequence, it does completely change the synth’s abilities.
Using @befacosynth squid cable, maybe not in the intended way of sending a signal to multiple destinations (doing the opposite 😅), but it works!

My second album.
The first on which I adopted the approach I’ve kept ever since: I’ll-play-whatever-the-hell-I-want-to-play-and-do-my-best.

The second of the two albums I recorded while teaching English in a lycée in the Paris suburbs, with that insane public transport journey I’ll never forget (3 hours/day, metro+RER+bus with my pupils…). I got a sabbatical in 2006, resigned in 2007 and still don’t know how I simultaneously handled teaching, recording albums and playing live shows abroad.
Recorded in Paris in the living room of the flat I had just moved to, in pure DIY-style: contact mikes mostly, everything going through my beloved pedals (Boss RC20, Akai Headrush, Line 6 DL4), then into ACID for chopping, looping, pitching and adding plugins.
Many factors contributed to my decision to stop sampling and start playing and processing instruments myself: hand-on-mouse-staring-into-Soundforge-and-Acid fatigue, realizing there were copyright issues I hadn’t really considered when releasing my first (mostly sampled) album, wanting to play live and understanding I was never going to be able to do that in a satisfactory way with sampled material (it would be different now with the incredible gear now available), having a revelation when I heard Lou Harrison’s work for gamelan and realizing I too wanted to play instruments again (I’m originally a guitar player).
The first album on which my love for African string instrument traditions is made clear.
Officially my best selling album in physical format (then again this was the mid-2000s, so you really can’t compare that to anything now).
To this day one of my favorite albums of my own, certainly the most blissed-out, representative of a time when my life changed for the best.

Last vinyl copies on Thrill Jockey website (US shipping) and Anost (Berlin shipping)
Digital on Bandcamp + all online platforms

Song by song instrument details in 2022 post.

Dear everyone

I completely forgot to announce this event over here: at 6 pm today I will be doing a Matriarch deep dive at Barcelona’s one and only modular shop, the amazing Elevator Sound! This will be followed by an open Matriarch/Eurorack jam! Limited capacity, 5.30 pm arrival advised :-)

TODAY 2nd May 2025: BANDCAMP FRIDAY DOUBLE FUNDRAISER! >4K$ collected already 🙏🙏🙏
SPECIAL VERSIONS – LIVE AT ACCA, BRIGHTON, FUNDRAISER #3 FOR ORAM @oramrefugee , LGBTIQ refugee NGO operating in Kenya, Mexico and Europe.
+ FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS RECORDINGS, FUNDRAISER #14 FOR LUCHANDO PPP, helping Perros Potencialmente Peligrosos (“potentially dangerous dogs”) in Spain.

Dear everyone, I am back with a double fundraiser for this BANDCAMP FRIDAY – a reminder that this lasts 24 hours today from 9am Central European Time/ midnight Pacific Time and is the ideal day to fundraise, as the platform does not take its 15% commission.
I discovered American non-profit ORAM, the Organization for Refugee, Asylum and Migration, through film-maker Shaun Kadlec @shaunkadlec , who used my music back in 2015 for a harrowing documentary on the situation of the gay and lesbian communities in Cameroon. ORAM helps LGBTIQ refugees and asylum seekers in all the steps of their journey to a safer place, providing shelter and emergency response, in a global political climate which obviously has become so much more hostile towards immigrants over the past couple of years, with resettlement to the US frozen at this moment.
As for Spanish non-profit Luchando PPP @luchando_ppp, I discovered them, as many other animal shelters, through the incredible photography work of @andreslopezphoto. The Spanish law on “potentially dangerous dogs” is recognized by canine experts as scientifically unsound and highly discriminatory, condemning dogs pertaining to these races to lifetimes in shelters, given that the administrative requirements and daily obligations linked to their possession makes their adoption even more difficult than for so-called regular dogs,  in a Spanish context which is already totally saturated with dogs in adoption at (mostly) private shelters.
I really hope you will consider joining these 2 initiatives todays.

Again massive thanks to @attenboroughctr , @kanearis and anyone who has already contributed.
Gear: @moogsynthesizers Grandmother, MF-104M Delay, @squarpinstruments Hapax

Yesterday Captain of None turned 10 years old.
My 5th album. 
My 1st for Thrill Jockey @thrilljockey , a label led by an incredible woman who single-handedly restored my faith in the record industry side of the music business (Bettina Richards, we owe you sooo much!!!), a label made up of people I deeply appreciate professionally and humanly (special shout out to Mike Boyd @stander_chicago , Matthew Fidler @mass_projection_ miss you!) 
My last love letter to baroque and acoustic instruments. 
My first foray into analogue and Moog gear with the @moogsynthesizers MF104-M Analog delay. 
The 2nd of 3 albums recorded in San Sebastián, my home from 2010 to 2019.
A midlife crisis album, yes – glad it came early somehow, glad I had music-making to help me get through it. 
Thank you so much for listening to it over the past 10 years, what a blessing 🙏🙏🙏
Hard at work to make you move (or not if you’re on the rigid side) on LP9 – planned release date: Spring 2026. CANNOT. WAIT. Seriously. 
With much love as always, 
Cécile