Photo: Luis Torroja

French multi-instrumentalist and composer Cecile Schott, known under the moniker Colleen, is back with The Tunnel and the Clearing, her first full-length album in three years following A flame my love, a frequency. An album that finds her “at her most vulnerable and confident”, The Tunnel and the Clearing was written during a transformative period. Schott began working on the album in 2018 when she experienced extreme fatigue from a previously undiagnosed illness, eventually leading her to relocating to Barcelona where lockdowns and a breakup followed. In her own words, The Tunnel and the Clearing “is a sonic translation of the highly emotional state and the heightened sense of perception that come in the wake of a breakup and a period of great changes, with the subsequent necessary reconstruction this entails.” She added, “Never before had I felt so profoundly the power that music has, through harmony, melody, rhythm and sound itself, to express the whole range of human emotions.”

To bring the album to life, Schott embraced a self-imposed rule on her setup, restricting herself to analog electronic instruments like the Elka Drummer One, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo and Moog Grandmother synth, as well as the Yamaha organ keyboard and select Moog effects.

The poignant and wonderful ‘Gazing at Taurus – Santa Eulalia’, named after the patron saint of Barcelona, is the first single to be let loose from the album. Take a listen below and grab the album when it’s out on May 21 through Thrill Jockey.

The release of Colleen‘s new album A flame my love, a frequency is just around the corner. Following the first enticing single ‘Separating‘, the French multi-instrumentalist and composer has shared a marvellous new track from the album called ‘Winter dawn’. It comes with a video directed by Connor R. Burke. Watch it now.

A flame my love, a frequency is out on October 20th through Thrill Jockey

Prepare yourself for a new album from French multi-instrumentalist and composer Colleen. A flame my love, a frequency follows her 2015 album Captain of None, which was one of our 15 Picks of the Year. Slated for an Autumn release, the upcoming album saw Colleen steering away from previous acoustic recordings to embrace new sonic territories in the realm of electronics and trading her usual viola da gama for a Critter and Guitari Synth.
With the relation between life and death as a core theme, A flame my love, a frequency is described as a record “that finds optimism in the face of tribulation, a meditation on humanity’s ability to prevail.”

The album will see the light of day on October 20th through Thrill Jockey but we can already hear the first enticing single ‘Separating’. The song, as the press release says, ” is an emotional response to being overwhelmed by the inevitability of death”. We’ve been playing it on a loop and can’t wait for October to come.