colleen

You can now listen to a guest mix I made for Klankschap, a mix that means a lot to me: I made it last month in the midst of very sad personal circumstances, and felt naturally drawn towards sadder music for the first time in a long time. I picked some old and more recent favourites and added music from films I saw recently, straight from the films themselves, in particular from the 1960 Indian film “The Cloud-Capped Star”: the soundtrack is really striking and at times so experimental that it sounds way ahead of it time, and in some ways it reminded me of my first album, which kind of loops the loop since the album is being reissued. I do hope you’ll like this mix and if you’re in a rough spot, that listening to it will be like having a loved one holding your hand…

“Cloud-capped” tracklisting:

OST Mildred Pierce

Reuben Bell And The Casanovas – It’s Not That Easy

Nina Simone –  When I Was In My Prime

Bela Bartok – Rumanian Folk Dance

Jane And Barton – It’s A Fine Day

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 1

Denial – California Dreaming

Dark Day – The Metal Benders

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 2

Meredith Monk – Nota

Bob Lind – Black Night

Jackson C Frank – Just Like Anything

Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around To Die (Live At The Old Quarter)

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 3

Stina Nordenstam  – Clothe Yourself For The Wind

Dominique A – Nous Marchons Sous La Neige

Grouper – Disengaged – Vital

Greg Gives Peter Space – Electric Eel River

OST Stroszek

Stefan Lakatos/Moondog – Over The Mountain

Khassonka Dunun – Traditional Music From Mali

Bena Kazembe Balitumpa – Kalimba & Kalumbu Songs, Northern Rhodesia

Lalle – The Fulani, Niger / Northern Bénin

Taireva – Zimbabwe, The Soul Of Mbira

OST The Cloud-Capped Star 4

OST Mildred Pierce

Talking of the Everyone Alive Wants Answers reissues, the tape sold out really fast, but a few copies are still available via Midheaven, and Beacon Sound are doing a second 100-copy limited edition, this time with a black shell – this will be the final edition and available only via Beacon Sound, so don’t miss it if you want one! The vinyl is available here.

I’ve also had the pleasure of writing about my adoptive town of San Sebastián and sharing photos of some of my favorite spots for the newly launched Long Way From Home. And yes, kittens hiding among the rocks with the sea in the background are among the best things of the place!

As always thanks for your ears and your support! :-)))

I have been keeping quiet these past couple of months, resting and exploring nature, but am soon going to start working on a new album, and in the meantime I do have some exciting reissue news courtesy of The Leaf Label and Beacon Sound. Leaf is celebrating its 20^th anniversary with a massive boxset that includes a white vinyl reissue of my first album from 2003 Everyone Alive Wants Answers. The album will also be available on black vinyl early next year, and you can preorder either of these here.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Beacon Sound in Portland have done a beautifully printed limited 100-copy numbered edition of the album on tape, grab it while you can directly from them!

Last but not least, earlier this summer, I had the amazing surprise of finding out via Tweeter and then Reddit that Alan Sparhawk from Low has been listening to my last album Captain of None! It’s a great honor as I am such a fan of early Low material (their first album meant so much to me at the time I heard it back in 1994 and “Words” remains one of my favourite songs ever)… When these things happen, I feel dizzy and grateful! ;-))))

Back from the US part two…

I loved every single one of the shows on this US tour and was truly touched by the kindness and warmth of everyone who came to see me play. Special thanks also go to some of the organisers for their enthusiasm and trust – I’m thinking in particular of the great team at The Exploratorium and Resonance curator Wayne Grim, who were the first to invite me for a 2014 show that had to be cancelled due to my lack of visa at the time, of Peter Broderick and Andrew Neerman of Beacon Sound for the Seaview and Portland shows, of Ronen Givony of Wordless Music for the New York show, and King Britt in Philadelphia.

I unfortunately have few high-quality photos of the shows, but here are a few tpictures from Constellation in Chicago, where I was very excited to finally be able to meet the whole Thrill Jockey team, and pictures from one of the most special shows on the tour, the Sou’wester Lodge in Seaview, Washington.

Seaview is a tiny town on the coast of Washington, about two hours’ drive from Portland, and the Sou’Wester Lodge is a very special place indeed: a 1892 lodge surrounded by vintage trailers and trees, the sea just a few hundred metres away… The atmosphere at Seaview is so serene and everything contributed to make this a special day: Peter Broderick gave a truly beautiful opening set, Liz Harris aka Grouper did a sound installation in one of the trailers, the sound was great thanks to the Beacon Sound PA and engineer Jason Powers, and last but not least delicious food was served at the end of the show, everyone sitting at the same huge table , with the night drawing near and finally engulfing us… Here are a few pictures of the show that can give you an impression of the afternoon’s atmosphere…

Another highlight of the tour was doing a session for David Garland’s WNYC’s Spinning on Air radio show: I had recorded a session and interview with David 10 years ago and it was such a pleasure to reunite with him after all these years! You can listen to the programme here and also watch this video of me covering the song from The Night of the Hunter, “Pearl’s Dream” aka “Once upon a time there was a pretty fly”, which I now play at almost every show.

A few articles and interviews were published during the tour, including Time Out Chicago, Portland Mercury and Classicalite, and last but not least I got my first review in the New York Times for my New York show!

I’d like to end this post by sharing a drawing made by someone who attended my Portsmouth show: one of my favourite songs to play live is “This hammer breaks”, especially the ending, which until now had always brought images of some kind of nuclear alarm to my mind, but as the tour went on, nicer images came into my brain, specifically – for some reason – “Star Wars”, until in Portsmouth I actually strongly visualised some mice battling with laser swords throughout the ending of the song… I told the crowd about it and one audience member, Alyssa Grenning, did this drawing, which I just love and I think is the perfect epilogue to this tour!

Thanks so much everyone for your support and interest, as always your words and presence really mean a lot to me! Wishing you a wonderful summer :-)))

I have been back from my US tour for one week and am slowly recollecting my physical strength, my head still full of wonderful images and memories from what has proved to be my most fulfilling tour on every level – I truly do not regret the amount of time and effort that’s gone into getting the US visa and booking that tour as it’s been 100% worth it!

Life when you’re touring pretty much consists of packing and unpacking your suitcase constantly and making sure you don’t miss your plane (especially true if like me you’re travelling alone and no one is there to tell you what time you should get up and get ready to go), so I did not have time to update this website while on the road, although I did do facebook, which is faster to do. So I’ll give you an update in two or three parts on all that went on for my music in June, and there’s been a lot!

First things first, Christophe Thockler’s wonderful video for “I’m kin” was unveiled at the start of my tour.

Christophe was interviewed about the video on The Plus Paper and on The Creators Project, and you can also read Christophe’s own words on the video and see some stills on his website. Thank you so much Christophe!

I was invited by The Vinyl Factory to make a 100% vinyl mix, and after the two purely Jamaican mixes I did for Solid Steel and FACT (which were actually also 100% vinyl!), this time I decided to focus on the rest of my record collection, going back to old favourites and tying the past with the present. I hope you will love those tracks as much as I do, and you can listen and read what I wrote about the mix and some of its tracks here.

https://soundcloud.com/thevinylfactory/vf-mix-14-colleen

One of the highlights at the beginning of my US tour was getting to do a KEXP session in Seattle – here is the full session below, and you can check out photos taken on that day here.

More from me soon!

I would like to start this update with a celebration of my ten years of artistic collaboration with Italian artist Iker Spozio. On 23rd May 2005, my second album The Golden Morning Breaks was released and marked the beginning of my collaboration with Iker : ever since then, I’ve had the great privilege of having Iker illustrate and design every single one of my records, gig posters and websites. We both believe in the importance of the record being a beautiful physical object and it’s been awesome to know that whatever the musical direction I was taking, Iker was going to be able to translate it into visual terms way beyond my expectations each and every single time. You can see more of Iker’s work for me on my website and more of his work in general on his website. Thank you so much Iker!!!! :-)))

Thanks so much to everyone who came to the LSO St Luke’s show in London on 24th May and to Francis Gallagher for these beautiful photos! I really had a brilliant time playing in that amazingly beautiful space!

Here’s the setlist of the show, which those of you living in the US and planning to come to the US shows starting on 11 June can have a look at if you feel like knowing what’s in store for you!
1. Holding Horses
2. I’m Kin
3. This Hammer Breaks
4. Salina Stars
5. Lighthouse
6. Soul Alphabet
7. The Weighing of the heart
8. O Willow Waly (from the film The Innocents)
9. Captain of None
Encore:
10. Geometría del Universo.
11. Once upon a time there was a pretty fly (from the film The Night of the
Hunter)
12. Breaking Up the Earth

As you can see, the set now features two cover versions of songs taken from the soundtracks to two films, The Night of the Hunter and The Innocents.

If you’re not familiar with the films and the songs, I strongly urge you to watch the films, and in the meantime, if you’re curious as to what the originals sound like, here are two excerpts from Youtube.

Speaking of music that I like, here are more things that you can have a look at and listen to.

If you’ve read and heard some of my recent interviews, you’ll have noticed I keep mentioning a reggae tape containing mostly Lee Perry productions which my parents bought when I was very little (probably 4, as the compilation’s last selections are from 1979 and I was born in 1976). To this day my parents have no recollection of when or where they bought that “Kings of Reggae” tape, my best bet being that they got it at a motorway petrol station and were probably attracted by the Bob Marley mention (they’re definitely no reggae heads! ;-)). In any case, blessed be the day of that purchase, because hearing gems such as “Roast fish and corn bread”, “Return of the super ape”, “Come along” and “Little flute chant” probably had quite an influence on my subsequent development as a musician!

American radio programme The Dinner Party Download invited me to select my ideal dinner music for their programme.

Finally, in connection with a special concert held at the Barbican in April with music influenced by Terry Riley, I was among the artists to whom the Boiler Room asked what it is about Riley’s music that we like.

On the live front, I will be flying to San Francisco on 9^th June to start my US tour, I’m very excited indeed to be hitting American shores for the first time since 2008 and I’m very much looking forward to sharing the stage with musicians that I love – you can see the full details on the live page and on my Songkick.

I will also be playing my first concert in Brussels since 2007, on August 24th, courtesy of Ancienne Belgique at the Park Royale (free event).

As always, thanks for your support!