Colleen (live performance) – Plus a conversation between Shawn Reynaldo & Spencer Doran – DJ Beacon Sound – Early show! – 21+

Holocene and Megalith present:

French artist Cécile Schott aka Colleen is fearless in her willingness to explore new sounds and new ways of creating music as a solo performer. Over the course of seven critically acclaimed albums released between 2003 and 2021, Cécile Schott consistently reinvented herself, first by taking acoustic instruments out of their usual context and pushing the boundaries of their playability, then through avant-pop electronic explorations. 

With compositions ranging from the mysterious and contemplative to kinetic and playful, the Thrill Jockey recording artist has given more than 230 concerts across Europe, the US, Japan, Brazil and Singapore, in prestigious venues and festivals  such as Moogfest, Big Ears, Mutek, Transmediale, Villette Sonique, Rewire and many more.

From 2003 to 2007, she released three albums on The Leaf Label (Everyone Alive Wants Answers in 2003, The Golden Morning Breaks in 2005 and Les Ondes Silencieuses in 2007).

After a break from recording and touring, Colleen returned with The Weighing of the Heart, using her voice for the first time and introducing a modified treble viola da gamba. 

The artist then released a string of albums for Thrill Jockey Records: 2015’s Captain of None in 2015, noticed for its daring use of viola da gamba in other-worldly pop songs incorporating dub-inspired techniques, 2017’s A flame my love, a frequency, which heralded a shift to a purely electronic setup, and 2021’s The Tunnel and the Clearing, produced in the aftermath of a profound personal crisis: vintage drum machine, organ, Moog synthesizer, her voice and her beloved Moogerfoogers and Space Echo tape delay united to create “an emotional noise” in her most harmonically complex record to date. 

Colleen’s growing passion for synthesis, bolstered by her collaborations with synth manufacturer Moog, have led to her 8^th album Le jour et la nuit du réel, to be released on Thrill Jockey on September 22^nd, 2023. Built as a suite of songs, the artist’s first double album is also her first purely instrumental work since 2007, and aims to translate through a myriad of sound transformations the complexity of our relation to reality, and its psychological mutations through the cycles of day and night.

Sharing the bill with Colleen for this special event will be author Shawn Reynaldo, in conversation with Spencer Doran (of Visible Cloaks) on the subject of electronic music culture. Andrew from Beacon Sound will be helming the turntables during the evening.

Shawn Reynaldo is a Barcelona-based writer and editor who specialises in electronic music. A Bay area native who first found his way into the rave scene during the late 90s, he’s spent decades immersed in independent music culture, logging countless hours running labels, throwing parties and hosting radio shows. However, his work as a music journalist has made him one of electronic music’s most prominent voices. Author of the First Floor newsletter, Shawn was formerly an editor at Red Bull Music Academy and XLR8R and has also contributed to such publications as Pitchfork, NPR, SPIN, Resident Advisor, DJ Mag, Bandcamp Daily and Beatportal. He will be touring the States in support of his new book, First Floor Volume 1: Reflections on Electronic Music Culture.