The Underground of Happiness

The first album in 6 years from Cécile Schott aka Colleen brings an intriguing earthy spiritualism and a meditational atmosphere built around a core of layered hushed vocals, circling classical guitar and viola de gamba motifs. The sense of meditational music is only added to by the use of toy gamelan, bells and chimes. The album unfolds as a series of vignettes or episodes based around pastoral settings – ‘Push the boat onto the sand’, ‘The moon like a bell’, ‘Humming fields’. I love the way ‘Push the boat...’ develops a lovely flowering arrangement, gathering loops of vocals and plucked strings before stripping back again. The brilliant combination of woodwind, drum and shakers on the instrumental ‘Going forth by day’. On ‘Breaking up the earth’, the pairing of tuned drums and high-toned plucked strings, with under the breath humming making for quite a shamanic display. And the burst of church organ two-thirds way through ‘Moonlit sky’ after an opening of oboe and plucked strings...