Photo supplied by the band
COLLECTRESS, THE MULTI-INSTRUMENTAL CHAMBER MUSIC COLLECTIVE TO RELEASE THEIR SECOND ALBUM, DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIES, INCOMING MARCH 6TH VIA THE BAND’S OWN, PEELER RECORDS
LISTEN TO THE NEW TRACK “LANDING”
Experimental, playful and deeply connected collaboration. For two decades this has been the pilot spark of Collectress: an all-female multi-instrumentalist chamber music collective based in and around London. Different Geographies, their latest album, is released spring 2020.
Collectress honour intuition and process – music emerges on the fly or is spun from long periods of playing and sharing; talking and swapping. Their compelling narratives are dark and light by turns, cellos sing over jagged krauty synth harmonies, electronic glitches interrupt melodic violin lines, handmade percussion and found sound weave among layered vocals and well-directed mischief.
Different Geographies is a record named in response to the realities of collaboration. Having scattered from their Brighton origins, the band looked for new opportunities to create across the separations of time, space and the vibrancies of life. Calendar-scattered stolen days took the place of weekly rehearsals. Collectress gatherings became more intense, the quartet drawn together across a widening map of overseas residencies, research projects from the Arctic to the Amazon, international tours with other groups, and motherhood. Yet Collectress maintained their deep connection. Quietly the music took form, and Different Geographies was born.
Although the process of making had changed, the beating heart of Collectress’s music remained four musicians playing together in one room: chamber music for the 21st century. Drawing on both composition and improvisation, the band’s distinctive world of experimentation endures – the singing mists of deep-space planets in Words; voices marking time in She Must Shut Her Eyes; wide galloping landscapes (Landing) and journeying energy (Roaming Bones); dances between classical strings and classic synths across the chromatic geometries of Mauswerk. Different Geographiesmaintains everything that is unique about Collectress, but breaks fresh ground. The homespun and intimate zooms out to a broader topography … inviting the curious to listen.
Collectress’ creative palate is bursting colour, and this release expresses their unique and enchanting take on the world.
Collectress are:
Alice Eldridge – cello, Korg MS10, laptop feedback, piano, Rhodes, vocals, percussion
Rebecca Waterworth – cello, piano, vocals, , percussion
Caroline Weeks – flute, guitar, Yamaha VSS200, piano, Rhodes, vocals, , percussion
Quinta – violin, piano, Rhodes, Korg MS10, Yamaha VSS200, vocals, musical saw , percussion
Further Album Credits:
Double bass (‘In the Streets, In the Fields’ & ‘Landing’): Andy Waterworth
Track Listing:
Words (Saturn)
Mauswerk
Harbour
In the streets, in the fields
Cardboard
Landing
Archive
She must shut her eyes
Words (Mars)
Roaming Bones
The free-thinking with which Collectress write and improvise is informed by their own sensitive absorption of surroundings, making multi-faceted but single-minded sounds. Collectress play chamber music without constraint”(Line Of Best Fit)
“They’re a funny bunch, Collectress- literary, knowing, witty, arch, while being sincere and very, very talented” (Roobla)
“Listening to them play I realized how music is present in so many objects and natural settings and we very rarely find the time to stop and appreciate it” – http://journal.splitgigs.com/
“Like possessed Brontë sisters teasing an unsuspecting dinner party” (Foxy Digitalis)