One of the most consistently exciting voices in contemporary music, French composer Cécile Schott aka Colleen announces new album Le jour et la nuit du réel, out September 22nd. The double album is a voyage deep into the world of synthesis, using this both as a creative approach and a means to interrogate complex concepts, from the self and perception to shifting notions of what is “reality”. Le jour et la nuit du réel’s astounding breadth of texture and emotion were sculpted from a surprisingly minimal setup even for Schott – an all-analog combination of one monophonic semi-modular synth, the Moog Grandmother, and two delays, the Roland RE-201 Space Echo and her trusted Moogerfooger Analog Delay. A kaleidoscopic range of sounds speckle the album’s seven suites which mimic the range and nuance of emotions, both deeply personal and communal, parsed into two distinctive halves that represent day and night and the contrasting feelings each encompasses.
Alongside the announcement, Schott also shares three new singles, with all three movements of “Subterranean”, tracing the depths of the subconscious with arcing synthesizer arpeggios and rippling delay. Across the three movements Schott demonstrates a masterful command of tension and release, the tracks’ driving pulse shifting from cascading harmonies, through rumbling bass and crackling noise before ascending heavenward to transform into dazzling constellations of celestial tone clusters. Schott elaborates: “I was interested in exploring feelings of urgency, friction and tension, the idea of things bubbling up under the surface, with a more abrasive sound and energetic approach than what people usually associate with my music.”
Colleen thrives on reinvention. For over two decades under the name, Schott has continuously pushed her compositional practice into new directions. Her creative approaches have included complex samples and loops, instrumental processing and even dub production techniques applied to the baroque viola da gamba. Each album immerses the listener in a wholly unique world while remaining unmistakably a work by Colleen. A connective thread of Schott’s work is the exploration of the intricacies of emotion while reveling in the act of contorting pop and classical forms into new shapes. Colleen’s mastery of the art of sculpting sounds is on full display on Le jour et la nuit du réel, an album at once minimalist in its tools yet yielding a gorgeous wellspring of diversity – a beautiful body of work that manages to explore the intersections of the material and the imagined, a sonic odyssey unearthing soul from synthesis.
Le jour et la nuit du réel will be released September 22nd, available on deluxe 2xLP, clear with gold flecks 2xLP and deluxe CD edition. A very limited mail order exclusive split color 2xLP metallic gold (A/B sides) and metallic silver (C/D sides) is available for preorder now via the Thrill Jockey website and Bandcamp. Full colour artwork by Andrés Gómez Servín and layout by Daniel Castrejón of Umor Rex.
Colleen 2023 tour dates
Sep. 22 – New York, NY – Public Records [tickets]
Sep. 23 – Philadelphia, PA – TBA
Sep. 25 – Toronto, ON – Tranzac [tickets]
Sep. 27 – Chicago, IL – Constellation [tickets]
Sep. 29 – Portland, OR – Holocene [tickets]
Sep. 30 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon [tickets]
Oct. 14 – Manchester, UK – The White Hotel
Oct. 15 – London, UK – venue TBA
Oct. 19 – Prague, CZ – Meet Factory
Nov. 10 – Brussels, BE – venue TBA
Nov. 11 – Utrecht, NL – Le Guess Who Festival
Dec. 14 – Barcelona, ES – L’Auditori
Dec. 16 – Lisboa, PT – Galeria Ze Dos Bois
