As this blog seems at present to be lurching drunkenly from leering unpleasantly at one foreign female musical iconoclast to another, its gaze would inevitably be attracted to Colleen.  Well, what with Bjork’s restraining order not expiring for another few days.  To give her some credit, Cecile Schott did a pretty good job of hiding, going as far as to ditch the clothing I was expecting to see her in favour of some fine renaissance period garb.

For Les Ondes Silencieuses (The Silent Waves, by my wayward reckoning) marks a significant change in the nature of Cecile’s recorded output.  Her first two albums on Leaf were outwardly electronic, albeit with acoustic undergarments.  The cloak is confidently tossed aside here, revealing an elegant chamber music frame; squint and you could be looking at a portrait from the era of King Louis the whatever it was (check the ornate “Le Labyrinthe”).  I adore “Blue Sands”, on which Cecile uses her viola de gamba to saw a maniacally repetitive figure into a base of…apparently more viola de gamba, but sounding like a completely different instrument, maybe a zither or harpsichord.  After this, the clarinet of “Sea of Tranquility” ushers in a stunning meditation, with strings fussing against each other into a trance. 

By stripping away the music’s outer layers, perversely Colleen has shown herself to be a musician of even more substance than I had previously thought (and I’m a big fan).  Les Ondes Silencieuses is a bold statement; not many people could carry off this look.

Listen to the wonderful “Blue Sands“, courtesy of Leaf, and more tracks at Colleen’s Myspace.  Purchase it from les ondes silencieuses de l’amazon.