Bleep

On her debut for Thrill Jockey, French multi-instrumentalist Cecile Schott aka Colleen foregrounds her nymph-like voice more clearly than on her previous albums for London’s Second Language and Leeds’ Leaf Records. The latter being her label home throughout the 00s - when she was more active - Schott now moves away from the loop based arrangements of that time, and more towards song form compositions. Recorded in her music studio in the Spanish town of San Sebastian, the second star of her mystical arrangements is the treble viola da gamba, a baroque instrument with gut strings, which with its repetitive pattern takes on the form of a rhythmic instrument as the opening ‘Holding Horses’, proving a proper from the glassy harp deluge. Next, ‘I’m Kin’ is a eye-wateringly beautiful affair of voice and string followed by the shamanistic drum rolls of ‘This Hammer Breaks’ where her recent dub influence (and love for Jamaica) can be felt in the delay and more prominent echo effects. This influence bleeds through to ‘Eclipse’, a fragile piece that also showcases some more esoteric homemade instruments such as chopsticks and an Indonesian metal printing block, underlining her unique sonic approach.