Colleen, "Les Ondes Silencieuses"

I have been infatuated with Cécile Schott's work as Colleen since first hearing Everyone Alive Wants Answers. Its collages of toy instruments and found sounds juxtaposed bit melodies and textures in a unique and oddly touching manner. This new album finds Schott playing all acoustic instruments this time and focusing on songwriting that unfortunately loses some of its charm in its stateliness.

 

Leaf

These nine instrumentals hover like gossamer in the air, demanding little attention. There are surely some exceptional moments to be found, like the standout track "Blue Sands" or the bittersweet ending of "Sun Against My Eyes," but too many bland patches broke the spell of what I did enjoy. Schott plays a variety of instruments into a lot of space that she previously may have filled, however subtly, with some enchantment hovering just out of earshot. Because that playfulness is lacking on this album, it suffers a little from too much politeness. Many of the melodies are so sparse that they seem bare without any further accompaniment, no matter how elegant they may be.

As a soundtrack to a melancholy film or as something pleasantly unobtrusive to play in the background, this works just fine. As active listening material, however, I hate to admit that it just didn't grab me.