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Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique (Leaf), the forthcoming EP by French musician Colleen (aka Cecele Shot) opens with the sound of a music box being wound up, which is appropriate. With the exception of one piece, the entire 39-minute EP–commissioned by French national radio’s Atelier de Création Radiophonique (Radiophonic Workshop Of Creation)–was created exclusively by using a variety of music boxes. Although one can hear snippets of the original melodies loaded into the boxes—“Charles’s Birthday Card” includes a chunk of “Rockabye Baby”—most of the work creates new sounds and patterns. Shot doesn’t merely record little bits of the music boxes; she samples them and manipulates them electronically—altering pitch and speed, clouding up certain bits with digital delay—as well as striking the metallic tines with a comb and rubbing them with her fingers.
