Colleen^FR

Colleen’s experimental compositions fall into an undefined category between electronic, classical “new music” and folk – she layers and loops acoustic instruments, her voice and samples, through processors and effects, holding her own on drums, music boxes, clarinet, melodica, guitar and her electro-acoustic viola da gamba. That baroque instrument is at the heart of her new Captain of None album, its resonant notes looped and altered, built into a chorus alongside drums and vocals.

Recording as Colleen since 2003, Schott began with sample-based music and progressed to an acoustic compositional approach with electronic processing. Influenced by experimental classical and electronic artists and by pop music, jazz, gamelan and dub reggae, Schott has yet to collaborate, working alone on her intricately rhythmic compositions. After releasing three critically hailed albums and a EP, she encountered a period of musical blankness. Six years went by before she finished writing and recording the beautifully contemplative songs on The Weighing of the Heart, using her own voice for the first time and delving deeper into percussion.

After living in Paris for much of her adult life, Schott moved away from its constant distractions in 2010 to San Sebastián on the Spanish coast. Like Colleen’s newest music, her Basque country life melds urban urgency with serenity and poetic acumen. Nine years after her celebrated Canadian debut opening for Hauschka at MUTEK, Colleen returns with innovative instrumentation and new ways of playing live.