24.5 Cécile Schott of Colleen: She Does Music

Photo by Estudio Primio

MUSIC FEATURED IN EPISODE 24

Curated by Sarah Ginsburg

Cécile Schott, a musician and composer originally from outside of Paris, has been making music since she was 15 and she started releasing albums under the name Colleen at age 27. She has 6 full albums and 1 EP in total, her most recent album being Captain of None, released in April of 2015 with Thrill Jockey Records. Our talented sound designer and friend, Billy Wirasnik, has been a long time fan of Colleen. Billy calls her work, “The music a beautiful brain would make if you could plug a quarter inch jack into it.” Cécile uses repetitive loops of old scratchy recordings, instruments like the glockenspiel, guitar, viola da gamba, bells, chimes and a variety of music boxes to make up the sounds in different combinations across her albums, building mysterious atmospheres that can be dark and playful at the same time. Colleen tracks differ from album to album, but are all unified by a tenderness, a curiosity, and a will to experiment and play, always taking you somewhere you weren’t expecting. In this episode, we talk about falling in and out of love with music, taking time to pursue other creative outlets, an artistic response to hardships and tragedy, and really, just living a simple, happy life.                                                                                                                                                

 CONNECT via Colleen's Website and Facebook

LISTEN to Colleen's

READ: NPR's top 50 Albums of 2015, FACT Magazine Interview, NYT Review

PURCHASE Colleen's Albums on Thrill Jockey or on vinyl directly from her

http://KEXP.ORG presents Colleen performing "Captain Of None" live in the KEXP studio. Recorded June 16, 2015. Host: DJ El Toro Audio Engineer: Jackson Long Cameras: Chrispy Harrison & Justin Wilmore Editor: Justin Wilmore http://colleenplays.org http://kexp.org

“I think it’s always worth trying to have your voice heard if its something that you really care deeply about.”

Colleen, aka Cécile Schott, is really one of those artists where if you know, you know. Her run of albums from 2003-2007, mostly on The Leaf Label presented an exquisite set of dream-worlds, where you could easily drift away on her loops of cellos, bells, flutes and musical boxes. But then a six-year hiatus from the music world made it almost seem like it HAD been a dream. However, she returned with The Weighing of the Heart in 2013, easily up there with her very best work - and now, teamed up with Thrill Jockey, she's showing that she's stronger than ever. This is the first track from her Captain of None album coming on April 7th, and damn, it's beautiful.