Colleen

As Colleen, Cécile Schott crafts dreamily experimental music that conveys lasting calm alongside a sense of marvel and a consistent talent for transformation. The producer and multi-instrumentalist initially concentrated on weaving samples and loops into elevated sonic tapestries with her 2003 release Everyone Alive Wants Answers, yet the introduction of acoustic elements on 2005’s The Golden Morning Breaks and the addition of vocals with 2013’s The Weighing of the Heart deepened the personal resonance and gentle glow of her work. Analog electronics later shaped the universal insights drawn from challenging periods across 2017’s A Flame My Love A Frequency and the 2023 instrumental double album Le jour et la nuit du réel, resulting in music of striking depth and beauty.

Raised in Montargis France Schott first played guitar during high school and took part in a noise-pop ensemble. After completing English studies at the University of Burgundy and a period spent in England she settled in Paris in 1999. Previously employed as an English instructor she turned to music-making in 2001 following a friend’s gift of free production software. By assembling found sounds and samples drawn from her personal collection together with holdings from the Paris Mediatheques library the project Colleen emerged. Her debut album Everyone Alive Wants Answers appeared on The Leaf Label in June 2003. Unwilling to limit live performances to purely electronic methods she enriched her loops through effects and acoustic instruments an approach carried into her second album The Golden Morning Breaks issued in May 2005 and featuring guitars old pianos mallets along with toy instruments. The next January brought Mort aux Vaches a contribution to Staalplaat’s limited live series while October saw the EP Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique a Radiophonic Workshop commission centered on music boxes.

Her sound continued to shift with 2007’s Les Ondes Silencieuses whose freer structures incorporated the spinet and viola de gamba an instrument that had fascinated Schott since adolescence. That same year she composed the score for choreographer Perrine Valli’s dance work Série. May 2013 marked the arrival of The Weighing of the Heart her first album to include her own vocals. She pursued this vocal direction further while integrating dub and additional Jamaican influences on Captain of None her April 2015 Thrill Jockey debut. For October 2017’s A Flame My Love A Frequency she turned to synthesizers including the Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano and Septavox channeling responses to the 2015 Paris terror attacks into impressionistic emotionally charged pieces. Work on the subsequent album began in 2018 yet was interrupted by exhaustion stemming from an undiagnosed condition. During treatment she navigated further transitions including a relocation to Barcelona and the conclusion of a relationship experiences that shaped the resulting music. Recorded on analog instruments such as the Elka Drummer One and the Moog Grandmother synth the reflective The Tunnel and the Clearing emerged in May 2021. While preparing her eighth album the material evolved from vocal foundations into synth-driven instrumentals that captured the fluid nature of perception. Crafted exclusively with the Moog Grandmother and two delay pedals the September 2023 double album Le jour et la nuit du réel conveyed daytime and nighttime reflection through its contemplative sequences.