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Oct 23, 2017 Colleen By Billy Hamilton

Cécile Schott (aka Colleen) likes to keep it fresh. Having only recently introduced vocals to her immaculate ambient compositions, the French multi-instrumentalist throws up another curveball on Colleen’s sixth LP by dropping her instrumental mainstay—the viola da gamba—for a Septavox synthesizer.

The result is more alien than any of Schott’s previous conceptions. Songs such as “The Stars vs Creatures” and “One Warm Spark” are twinkling, key speckled constellations, each hauntingly pretty and impossibly brittle. More mesmerising still is album apex “Separating,” a brilliant synth-led tapestry that whooshes and wheezes to Schott’s crystalline intone.

There are definite parallels with Ekstasis period Julia Holter, but Schott is less fussed for easy-eared melodies. Instead she makes her mark through kaleidoscopic waltzes like “Another World” and the title track’s droning, ethereal haze. And while that doesn’t always make it an easy listen, it’s hard not to admire her ambition. (www.colleenplays.org)

Author rating: 7/10