“Gazing at Taurus – Santa Eulalia” is taken from Colleen‘s upcoming album, The Tunnel and the Clearing, out May 21 via Thrill Jockey Records.

Barcelona-based, French-born multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Cécile Schott, better known as Colleen, has announced the release of her new album, which was created during a period of transformative change. Indeed, Colleen had to reimagine her creative process after suffering from extreme fatigue, due to an undiagnosed illness. Her relocation to Barcelona, the lockdowns and the end of a longtime partnership also influenced this change of mindset. “Never before had I felt so profoundly the power that music has, through harmony, melody, rhythm and sound itself, to express the whole range of human emotions,” she explained. That is certainly why the seven tracks of The Tunnel and the Clearing explore the complexity and contradiction of human emotions while focusing on personal reconstruction.

Driven by ambient layers and crepuscular organs, the first track lifted from the album, “Gazing at Taurus – Santa Eulalia,” sounds like the promise of a new beginning. In her own words:

“On an exceptionally clear night in my new home, I was able to gaze at the Taurus constellation, observing the spectacular Pleiades for the first time in my life. I tried to repeat the experience a year later, but of course this time felt totally different. Santa Eulalia is a statue that stands atop a cathedral spire nearby. I saw her every day from my window and greeted her on my daily walk, and she ended up becoming my own personal symbol of resilience in this troubled year.”