Leaf Label
Colleen : Les Ondes Silencieuses (F,2007)****
I didn’t know what to expect next after the first two albums of Colleen, but this new album succeeded in surprising me. From a previous basically moody overtone collage territory, this new album has more a contemporary feeling, especially in the moody 2-notes-at-once layered harmonies on the (cello-like) viola da gamba improvisations. Most used instruments have similarly built closely-living melodic harmonies which are used on each instrument, like on the (harpsichord-like) spinet, or clarinet, or on the (Tibetan bowl like sounds, in glass, of) crystal glass, while guitar pickings are mixed with, what I think are different pickings instruments, sometimes with an extra layer of a (more viola-like, this time) viola da gamba. The tracks build up from one to the next, first improvisation-like and minimal to some degree, in a meditative way, as if from one quiet spot of sounds-in-environment meditations. The last few tracks seem to resume the meditation field but a bit into a moody contemporary classical piece, moving slightly forward in mind, like walking around in the woods like elves ; this is played by (harp-like) classical guitar (and a second minimalist and rhythmical acoustic guitar) and (a more lower toned, slowly moving) clarinet. This movement more and more reveals something which looks like the image on the front cover of the CD. The elves-like movements move like butterflies in the forest. The guitar pickings thoroughly go to the centre of the forest and reveal there the ‘viola da gamba’ player in the middle, who invented this whole creation, and imagined the mood in it with this instrument, and then plays a last highlight with it with dignity.
