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October 06, 2006
Colleen updates
Colleen’s latest venture, Colleen Et Les Boîtes À Musique, hit the shops next October 10th.
“It seemed like a dream opportunity to explore further the miniature continent of sound that music boxes in all their variety generate” says Colleen’s Cécile Schott in response to the carte blanche handed to her by national radio station France Culture’s Atelier De Création Radiophonique to record music for a special broadcast.
The commission would have remained just that, but Schott was so pleased with the results she decided to give the nod for the recordings to be released on this 38-minute EP, under a temporarily revised artist name.
No stranger to the use of music boxes in her recordings and live performance, the consciously limited palette yields extraordinary dividends; this is arguably the most intimate and wonderfully melodic release of her career to date. Composed entirely using music boxes (but for one track), the pieces use everything from miniature boxes hidden in 1940s birthday cards to large Victorian boxes. Not content with the orthodox sounds produced by the boxes, Schott hijacked them, playing them with her fingers or with mallets on the comb. She re-sampled and affected pitch and delay in a quest to produce unique sounds and melodies.
Utilising the natural loop in each box, the different boxes move in and out of time, evoking memories of childhood. This playful nature ebbs and flows throughout the EP like a stream unsure of its chosen path. Sounds reminiscent of harps (‘What Is A Componium? Part 2’), xylophones and Fender Rhodes (‘Your Heart Is So Loud’), and electronics (‘Calypso In A Box’) appear and then disappear on the landscape, fooling the listener into believing that the noises emanate from more than one type of instrument.
This 14-track EP will provide refreshing new material for those anticipating Colleen’s third long player, scheduled for release in early 2007. The material is all new with the exception of the final track, ‘I’ll Read You A Story’, which can also be found on 2005’s The Golden Morning Breaks.
“Really, really beautiful”
Stuart Maconie, Freak Zone, 6 Music
“Surprisingly broad-ranging and uniformly engrossing”
Independent Music Magazine
“A remarkable project”
The Guardian
As you may already know if you subscribe to our MySpace blog, Colleen has finally got her own official MySpace page! There was a fan page on Myspace (which made no mention of the fact that it was unofficial, and that no messages would reach Cecile), so if you were signed up to that you may wish to visit the new page and get yourself added. The new page will feature regular news and updates.
Colleen is touring Japan in October/November this year. Japanese label Windbell will release a special 2CD package to coincide with the tour, including Colleen's 2005 album The Golden Morning Breaks as well as the new Colleen Et Les Boites a Musique EP. The Japanese 2CD will not include any new music, but will feature new packaging.
Colleen live:
10/28 -Black Chamber, Osaka, Japan with Bridget St John, Kama Aina, Moose Hill & Yuko Ikoma
10/29 - Urbanguild, Kyoto, Japan with Bridget St John, Kama Aina & Moose Hill
10/31 - Tokuzo, Nagoya, Japan with Bridget St John, Kama Aina & Moose Hill
11/03 - Asakusa Art Square, Tokyo, Japan with Bridget St John, Kama Aina & Moose Hill
11/04 - Asakusa Art Square, Tokyo, JAPAN with Bridget St John, Kama Aina & Moose Hill
11/18 - Transit Festival, Chiasso, SWITZERLAND
11/23 -BLÅ, Oslo, NORWAY with Pierre Bastien
11/24 - NORWAY with Pierre Bastien
11/26 - StåOppJazz, Bergen, NORWAY with Pierre Bastien
Colleen’s websites:
Colleen Plays
My Space
Posted by mike at October 6, 2006 10:39 AM