Colleen Has Better Taste Than I Do

A guest recommendation from the Barcelona-based composer, avant-pop auteur and synthesis obsessive.

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Hello there. I ’m Shawn Reynaldo, and welcome to First Floor, an electronic music digest that includes news, interviews, new release recommendations and examinations of the issues affecting the larger scene / industry that surrounds the music. This is a free edition of the newsletter; access to all First Floor content (including the complete archive) requires a paid subscription, which you can sign up for by clicking the button below. (Alternately, you can also support the newsletter by making a one-time donation here.)

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Colleen Has Better Taste Than I Do

Shawn Reynaldo

Feb 25

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First Floor is in many ways a one-person operation, but every Wednesday, the newsletter fully cedes the spotlight to an artist, writer or other figure from the music world, inviting them to recommend a piece of music.

Photo by Luis Torroja

Today ’s recommendation comes from Colleen, a French artist who’s spent two-plus decades pushing her tools—both acoustic and electronic—beyond their intended limits. After introducing herself to the world with a melange of ethereal loopscapes and hypnotic found sounds, she then took a lengthy detour into exploring the sonic possibilities of “real” instruments, placing a particular focus on the viola da gamba, a precursor to the cello that dates back to the 15th century. In recent years, however, Colleen has increasingly turned back toward the electronic realm, throwing herself headlong into synthesis while cultivating a small stable of analog gear. (That shift, as it happens, has also coincided with a move to Barcelona, which she’s called home since 2019.)

Experimental without being abrasive, and minimal without being boring, Colleen ’s music is often described as avant-pop. That’s not an inappropriate descriptor, but it is one that provides an incomplete picture of her catalog, which over the years has drawn from Jamaican dub, Renaissance-era composition, hypnotic post-punk, the oeuvre of Arthur Russell and a litany of other influences. Her upcoming full-length, _Libres antes del final _, might be her most purely electronic effort to date; billed as “an ode to movement, to the body, to water, to urgency; to repairing old wounds, overcoming personal blocks and starting all over again,” it’s full of bubbling arpeggios and shimmering textures, yet the record unfolds with the patience and elegance that has long been a defining feature of her work.

Libres antes del final _is due to surface next month on Thrill Jockey, but in the meantime, Colleen has carved out a few moments to share something that ’s not only unexpected (at least coming from her), but also reflects a newfound—and, once again, unexpected—love for the dancefloor.

Drexciya – Black Sea / Wavejumper (Clone, 2018)

Last year something I wasn’t expecting happened: I reconnected with the act of listening to music in a way I hadn’t felt since my teenage years. I’m talking about listening to music on headphones outdoors or in your bed, or turned up loud in a room at home or in a club and feeling like it’s the absolute best thing in the world.

I had slowly lost that feeling over the years, perhaps as a weird side effect of fulfilling my dream of becoming a musician, only occasionally reconnecting with it. My guess is that the combination of my interest in synthesis, going to live shows more often and starting to dance for the first time in my life sparked this latest reconnection: I am listening with an analytical ear, yes, but because this material is new to me, I totally feel like it has just been released and I can just be a listener.

Drexciya is one group I became obsessed with, and I could not believe I hadn’t come across their music earlier. I listened to everything I could over the summer (the back catalogue has been extensively reissued, mostly by the Clone and Tresor labels), and nothing could prepare me for the 1995 classic “Black Sea,” which was originally released on Warp, though Clone subsequently reissued an alternate take of the track on the _Black Sea / Wavejumper_ EP.

It is hard to describe with words alone just how raw and propulsive the music feels and how incredibly analogue it sounds. As with other Drexciya favorites of mine, this subterranean rawness is counterbalanced by a very fresh, buoyant melodic and harmonic sensibility, as well as production details that stand out, such as the frequent water-like and siren-like sounds. The result is truly unique and I don’t think it has been replicated; simultaneously experimental, accessible and danceable, these sonic gold nuggets were born out of machines, but those machines were clearly touched by human hands.

First Floor is published and overseen by Shawn Reynaldo, a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him onLinkedIn and Instagram—and make sure to follow First Floor on Instagram as well—or you can just drop Shawn an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or other potential opportunities.

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