Colleen Et Les Boîtes À Musique
This long EP, released in 2006 on The Leaf Label, was born from an invitation by national French radio France Culture for their programme Atelier de Création Radiophonique : I had to make a one-hour long piece and chose to explore the world of music boxes, small and large, new and old, and incorporated excerpts from films including music boxes between the songs. I was able to rely on the help and expertise of my friend musician, producer and radio presenter John Cavanagh, who owns a considerable collection of antique music boxes, and recorded me in Glasgow improvising with small mallets or my fingers on those huge Victorian models. Although the songs were originally intended only for that radio programme, The Leaf Label liked the music so much that they decided to release it as an EP (for copyright reasons, the film excerpts could not be included).
Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique is a generous EP (nearly 40 minutes) containing 13 pieces Cécile Schott (aka Colleen) was commissioned to create for a special broadcast by the French government's Radiophonic Workshop, with the addition of "I'll Read You a Story," reprised from her 2005 album The Golden Morning Breaks.