Colleen (Leaf)

More Leaf Label goodness and this time in comes in the form of French minimalist Colleen, aka Cecile Schott. Colleen is renowned for making beautiful acoustic compositions using both instruments and technology. Her most famous album is 2004's well recieved "Everyone Alive Wants Answers", which combined the sounds of cello, classical guitar, clarinet, chimes, loops and delay pedals to stunning effect. This album featured prominently in end of year lists, most notably in The Wire Magazine.

Released on October 2nd, the "Colleen et les Boites a Musique" ep, is Cecile Schott's attempt to fully explore the sounds of musical boxes. Commisioned by French radio station, France Culture, for a special broadcast, this 32 minute ep is made up entirely of music boxes, ranging from birthday cards to Victorian boxes.

Each note has been sampled, cut, filtered, re-sampled and generally tampered with to create unique melodies. The video above of "I'll Read You A Story" (also featured on the "Golden Morning Breaks" album) illustrates this perfectly.

The whole ep runs like this, utilising the natural loop of music boxes as they weave in and out of time, evoking memories of childhood. The mp3 below, "Your Heart Is So Loud", glistens and lulls, with a tempo akin to a grandfather clock. It is the sound of a far away, distant orchestra.

As ever, visit PostEverything to purchase this album.

"Your Heart Is So Loud" mp3 - Colleen