colleen

I am so happy to finally be able to present my 9th album, Libres antes del final, which will be out on @thrilljockey on March 20th, 2026. I always pour myself out entirely in my albums and this one is no exception, tightly linking my deepening love for synthesis, which got stronger and stronger as I got more involved in the Barcelona modular scene (big up to @elevatorsound_eu and @barcelonamodularsociety !), with a wonderful shift in my life which started to happen when I learnt to swim again in the sea, after 30 years of water phobia. This new energy is reflected in the music itself and I cannot wait to share the whole album with you and play it live (first European and American dates and in the tour poster below- more dates to be announced soon!).

You can listen to the first single “Antídoto” now. The album in general has a tense and at times rather dark energy, and “Antídoto”, bang in the middle of the album, acts as the positive counterweight and joyful centerpiece. It is the sun-drenched, edgy reply to moments when you feel anger, it is my musical way of saying I can turn the situation upside down and build my own antidote to the negative feelings consuming me. It has the energy of “I’m not going to let things get in my way”.

Thank you @thrilljockey ; @owt_taller_de_sonido reamping @casa.montjuic and mixing; @damianschwartz mastering; Luis Torroja photo; @dnks_mx design; @moogsynthesizers Matriarch.

Libres antes del final is available on limited Ocean Blue vinyl (300 copies) only through: SHIPPING FROM THE US Thrill Jockey webshop and Bandcamp, SHIPPING FROM GERMANY Anost (our official distributor), SHIPPING FROM THE UK Norman Records+ I will have some copies with me at some of the shows (but cannot guarantee which :-)))

Cloud vinyl in indie record stores only, black vinyl everywhere.

Available on gatefold CD from all retailers. Digitally on all platforms.

An important word I wrote this morning to my Bandcamp followers and which I’d like to share with all of you:

if you do decide to buy this album in any form, or come to one of the shows… I truly thank you, not in a shallow way, but sincerely, because I am acutely aware that the cost and therefore the price of everything has risen astronomically over the past couple of years, making the price of albums and their shipping hard to stomach in general, and just not a reasonable option for many.

We are all facing this every single day, in our personal lives, our professional endeavours, whether it’s paying the rent, food, utilities, travelling to see family, caring for our health, and covering essential professional expenses.

For labels, the costs of manufacturing, shipping, as well as new tariff barriers, have taken a real toll, without mentioning the gradual disappearance of music media outlets and the algorhythmization of absolutely everything. 

When it comes to leisure pursuits, you do decide how to spend what you have left. If you choose to spend it on my music, I am super grateful. I hope that the sincerity, love and dedication I put in what I do makes up for its cost, even though these two factors are actually unrelated. And I am glad that the relationship between a musician and their listener remains one of those bonds that can exist outside of algorhythms, in the way of all true bonds.

LIVE 2026 – TICKET LINKS HERE

26 April Foggy Hex presents (double show) – BARCELONA, ES @foggyhexbcn
2 May Long Play @Public Records – NEW YORK, NY @bangonacan@publicrecordsnyc
6 May Constellation – CHICAGO, IL @constellationchicago
7 May Beacon Sound presents  – PORTLAND, OR @beacon_sound
9 May The Lab – SAN FRANCISCO, CA @thelabsf
26 May Silent Green – BERLIN, DE @silent.green with @midori_hirano_
11 June Botanique – BRUSSELS, BE @botanique_bxl

Filming in the sea and all the rest… LP9’S VERY SPECIAL FINISHING LINE + > 3000$ FUNDRAISED WITH SPECIAL VERSIONS 🙏🙏🙏
The finishing line to recording an album is always a special and packed moment, but this one more than any of my previous albums, with many factors colliding and enriching the process.
The film project in the sea that my collaborator @luistorroja and I have just finished shooting is a gift the depth of which I could not have anticipated, we absolutely cannot wait to share the results with you, and I am trying to retain the strength it has given me within me.
I record the album next week, then will do something really special with @owt_taller_de_sonido., more about this too later down the line + news of live shows 😀😀😀
And yes, we have reached the 3000$ mark with my Bandcamp exclusive fundraiser. I am floored. Thank you so much. And 🙏🙏🙏 @attenboroughctr @kanearis @laura___mcd @la_ducceschi
In this reel also @moogsynthesizers @tartarelena @festivalbam @lafluent @thebillhates @justgrooves @barcelonamodularsociety
@proucomplicitat @globalsumudflotilla @globalmovementtogaza.catalunya

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 :-)