colleen

You can read a small text I wrote on what the year 2014 has brought me on Fractured Air’s Don’t Look Back – hope you enjoy reading it!

Have a lovely end of year and see you in 2015!

THRILLED TO SIGN TO THRILL JOCKEY!

I am extremely excited and happy to announce that I’ve signed to Thrill Jockey Records for my next album, which will be released in early spring 2015. Thrill Jockey has been the home of so many important and diverse musicians and bands for over more than 2 decades that it’d be hard to list even just the ones I like the best, and I’m very honoured indeed to be in the company of Oval, Mouse on Mars, Matmos, High Places, Town and Country, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Mountains, Dustin Wong, and so many more!
The album’s release will be officially announced in early February, a European tour is currently being prepared for April/May, and dates in the US have already been booked for June and will be fully confirmed once I have news about my work visa. Can’t wait for you to hear the record, can’t wait to play it live on both sides of the Atlantic!

News on the fifth album is that the mastering is now finished (thank you Antony at RedRedPaw Mastering !) and the artwork for the vinyl version has been completed and is almost finished for the CD version too, always courtesy of Iker Spozio (see pic below of Iker preparing the back cover of the artwork).

I’m also currently preparing paperwork for a US work visa application in order to play there next year, and as far as Europe is concerned there are two shows planned before the end of the year : 26 October in Zaragoza, Spain and 4 December in Geneva, Switzerland, and plenty more planned around the release of the next album !

Below is a small pic of the concert in Santiago at the Wos Inc festival on 13 September 2014, I do look very small in front of that huge retable !

Last but not least, The Leaf Label, who released my first three albums, is celebrating its 20th anniversary next year and has plans to repress on vinyl part of their sold-out back catalogue, so if you wish to see some of my albums back on vinyl, or even the Colleen et les boîtes à musique EP which was only available on CD, you can have your say here !

After 3 months of almost non-stop recording and mixing, MY FIFTH ALBUM IS OFFICIALLY FINISHED!  The album won’t be released for a while due to the heavy schedule of the label releasing it, so you and I will have to be very patient, but fear not, in 2015 it will come (I will be able to announce the release date publicly in November).

It was my first time recording and mixing an album during the spring and early summer, what’s more in near-perfect conditions, so this album is by far the one I’ve enjoyed working on the most (90% pleasure / 10% pain – whereas for some of my albums the balance was closer to 50/50! ;-) The mastering remains to be done, but now it’s mostly time to relax and rest, prepare for the live shows and some possible other surprises, and enjoy the summer…

I will be posting other photos that I took during the recording process once we get closer to the release date.  I *really* cannot wait for you to hear it, as well as play it live… I will play a couple of live shows in autumn 2013, but you can expect a lot more shows (hopefully on both sides of the Atlantic) once the album is released.

Wishing a wonderful summer to you all, and as always thanks for your time and support!

When I started releasing records in 2003, I was immediately asked to do a mix to be played on radios. From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved making compilations for other people, so doing those mixes has actually been one of my favourite activities whenever I have a new album out. I put so much love into them that I think it’s just a shame that most of them are not available anymore, so I’ve started a Mixcloud page where I’ll be uploading all of the mixes I’ve done since 2003, in chronological order – I’ll try to do this once a week, and hopefully you’ll want to join me and have a listen!
Here is the first one, from May 2003, accompanying the release of my first album Everyone Alive Wants Answers.

Talking of unavailable material, I also recently realised that there is one song of mine that’s now virtually unavailable physically and which I still love, entitled “Good Morning Sunshine”, from 2002. It wasn’t included on Everyone Alive Wants Answers because it had already appeared on a compilation and on the Babies 7’’ released by Active Suspension at that time, and with hindsight, I kind of regret it, although it’s there in some way anyway, since “Goodbye Sunshine”, that does appear on the album, was based on the same samples. Here it is 12 years later, for all those of you who didn’t get the chance to hear it.

Those of you following me on Facebook will already have read these news, so I apologize for the déjà vu, but I’m not forgetting those of you who are not so keen on Facebook, which is why I’m also posting these news here. Please remember that you can still check out my Facebook page even if you’re not a Facebook member! I will probably update the Facebook page more often than this news section, as I find it quicker to use for small updates and posting photos.

In case you missed them, here are a couple more photos of my studio where I’m currently recording my fifth album.

As always thanks for your support! :-)