French multi-instrumentalist Colleen (Cécile Schott) is fearless in her willingness
to explore new sounds and new ways of creating music as a solo performer. On
her new album A ?ame my love, a frequency, she introduces the most drastic
change to her music since she began singing on her fourth album, setting aside
the viola da gamba she is known for in exchange for all electronic instrumentation
- Moog pedals and Critter and Guitari synthesizers.
Words used to describe her muse Arthur Russell are equally applicable to Colleen.
Schott’s compositions can be in turn pop or experimental, vocal or instrumental,
and acoustic or electronic. She has drawn on the baroque sounds of a classical
instrument using the most modern pedals and looping techniques. Shape shifting
as she does, the pieces are always distinctly her strong and utterly unique musical
voice. A constant across Colleen’s albums are delicate extended melodies, minutely
detailed soundscapes, and explorative unbounded compositions. Colleen’s work is
a direct result of her core belief that in order to keep growing as an artist, you need
to continue to be willing to experiment and to embrace drastic changes.
The music of A ?ame my love, a frequency is the closest Colleen has come to a
concept album, a re?ection upon one year in her life that began in the Autumn of
2015. The album‘s central theme is the inescapable fact that life and death always
walk hand in hand. Schott is an avid bird watcher and her home and studio on the
coast of Spain allow for frequent trips out into the wilds. As any naturalist knows,
extreme beauty and vitality go hand in hand with brutality. This symbiosis was made
more personal when, on the way back from visiting a very ill relative in France, she
decided to spend the night in her former home of Paris in order to take her viola
bow for repair at a luthier in the Republique area. It was late afternoon and she
remembers the beauty of Paris and people sitting and enjoying the cafés. That was
November 13th and a mere 4 hours later these very same cafés were the scene of
utter terror and death.
A few weeks after the events, Colleen started composing the songs that make up the
album. She recorded each song live with minimal edits and vocals were recorded
without overdubs, creating a symbiosis between the machine and the performer
that mirrors the album’s core concept. The personal narrative of the year in
question yields a more vulnerable sound than any previous recordings by Colleen.
“Separating” is an emotional response to being overwhelmed by the inevitability of
death. Feelings of fear are never far from feelings of joy as they are in “Winter dawn”
with its propulsive thump and ominous lyrics “I came home with a fstful of fear,”
that manage to shift towards hope with “Love alone is your home.” Joy and hope are
strongly present throughout the album, the catalyst that lifts us out of the darkness
as inevitably as night to day. We are shown the wonderment of “Another world,”
and through the metaphors of light, shown joy as in the title track. A ?ame my love,
a frequency is an album that fnds optimism in the face of tribulation, a meditation
on humanity’s ability to prevail. It is a beautiful, complex album by a singular and
remarkable musician.
TRACK LISTING:
1. November
2. Separating
3. Another world
4. Winter dawn
5. Summer night (Bat Song)
6. The stars vs creatures
7. One warm spark
8. A fame my love,a frequency
SALES POINTS
Colleen has been praised by Pitchfork, Uncut, Mojo, The
Wire, Magnet, FACT, Stereogum, The New York Times,
Exclaim, Relix, Resident Advisor, Paste, The Quietus, and
more
Colleen will tour extensively with her completely
reconfgured synthesizer setup, including sets at
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and PhilaMOCA in
Philadelphia
Colleen performed earlier this year at Moogfest where she
also held a workshop explaining her pedal techniques.
Moog has partnered with Thrill Jockey to help promote the
album and host Colleen at their factory
Features for the new album already confrmed with Magnet,
Resident Advisor, and XLR8R in addition to a Dublab studio
session
LP pressed on virgin vinyl with artworked inner sleeve and
free download coupon. A very limited supply pressed on
white vinyl. CD version in mini-LP style gatefold
Colleen has performed high profle in-studio sessions for
both Seattle’s KEXP and New York’s WNYC
Colleen’s 2015 album Captain of None was featured on
countless end of year lists including NPR Music, BBC
6 Music, The Quietus, Uncut, Bleep, and Vinyl Factory
“Exquisite, precise music made of unlikely inputs…The
result is like a heart that pumps blood and also data.” - New
York Times
“It is a wondrous concoction, simultaneously ancient and
modern, brought together by technology and the ear of a
woman who unites epochs.” - NPR Music
“carves out and inhabits a persuasively exotic world of echo
that invites total immersion.” - Mojo (4/5)
to explore new sounds and new ways of creating music as a solo performer. On
her new album A ?ame my love, a frequency, she introduces the most drastic
change to her music since she began singing on her fourth album, setting aside
the viola da gamba she is known for in exchange for all electronic instrumentation
- Moog pedals and Critter and Guitari synthesizers.
Words used to describe her muse Arthur Russell are equally applicable to Colleen.
Schott’s compositions can be in turn pop or experimental, vocal or instrumental,
and acoustic or electronic. She has drawn on the baroque sounds of a classical
instrument using the most modern pedals and looping techniques. Shape shifting
as she does, the pieces are always distinctly her strong and utterly unique musical
voice. A constant across Colleen’s albums are delicate extended melodies, minutely
detailed soundscapes, and explorative unbounded compositions. Colleen’s work is
a direct result of her core belief that in order to keep growing as an artist, you need
to continue to be willing to experiment and to embrace drastic changes.
The music of A ?ame my love, a frequency is the closest Colleen has come to a
concept album, a re?ection upon one year in her life that began in the Autumn of
2015. The album‘s central theme is the inescapable fact that life and death always
walk hand in hand. Schott is an avid bird watcher and her home and studio on the
coast of Spain allow for frequent trips out into the wilds. As any naturalist knows,
extreme beauty and vitality go hand in hand with brutality. This symbiosis was made
more personal when, on the way back from visiting a very ill relative in France, she
decided to spend the night in her former home of Paris in order to take her viola
bow for repair at a luthier in the Republique area. It was late afternoon and she
remembers the beauty of Paris and people sitting and enjoying the cafés. That was
November 13th and a mere 4 hours later these very same cafés were the scene of
utter terror and death.
A few weeks after the events, Colleen started composing the songs that make up the
album. She recorded each song live with minimal edits and vocals were recorded
without overdubs, creating a symbiosis between the machine and the performer
that mirrors the album’s core concept. The personal narrative of the year in
question yields a more vulnerable sound than any previous recordings by Colleen.
“Separating” is an emotional response to being overwhelmed by the inevitability of
death. Feelings of fear are never far from feelings of joy as they are in “Winter dawn”
with its propulsive thump and ominous lyrics “I came home with a fstful of fear,”
that manage to shift towards hope with “Love alone is your home.” Joy and hope are
strongly present throughout the album, the catalyst that lifts us out of the darkness
as inevitably as night to day. We are shown the wonderment of “Another world,”
and through the metaphors of light, shown joy as in the title track. A ?ame my love,
a frequency is an album that fnds optimism in the face of tribulation, a meditation
on humanity’s ability to prevail. It is a beautiful, complex album by a singular and
remarkable musician.
TRACK LISTING:
1. November
2. Separating
3. Another world
4. Winter dawn
5. Summer night (Bat Song)
6. The stars vs creatures
7. One warm spark
8. A fame my love,a frequency
SALES POINTS
Colleen has been praised by Pitchfork, Uncut, Mojo, The
Wire, Magnet, FACT, Stereogum, The New York Times,
Exclaim, Relix, Resident Advisor, Paste, The Quietus, and
more
Colleen will tour extensively with her completely
reconfgured synthesizer setup, including sets at
Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and PhilaMOCA in
Philadelphia
Colleen performed earlier this year at Moogfest where she
also held a workshop explaining her pedal techniques.
Moog has partnered with Thrill Jockey to help promote the
album and host Colleen at their factory
Features for the new album already confrmed with Magnet,
Resident Advisor, and XLR8R in addition to a Dublab studio
session
LP pressed on virgin vinyl with artworked inner sleeve and
free download coupon. A very limited supply pressed on
white vinyl. CD version in mini-LP style gatefold
Colleen has performed high profle in-studio sessions for
both Seattle’s KEXP and New York’s WNYC
Colleen’s 2015 album Captain of None was featured on
countless end of year lists including NPR Music, BBC
6 Music, The Quietus, Uncut, Bleep, and Vinyl Factory
“Exquisite, precise music made of unlikely inputs…The
result is like a heart that pumps blood and also data.” - New
York Times
“It is a wondrous concoction, simultaneously ancient and
modern, brought together by technology and the ear of a
woman who unites epochs.” - NPR Music
“carves out and inhabits a persuasively exotic world of echo
that invites total immersion.” - Mojo (4/5)
