New Website

My Fifty Two Weeks blog is now officially finished, but please feel free to keep updated on my music through my new website:

madeleinecocolas.com

Week Fifty Two Project…. And it's a wrap!

Week Fifty Two has finally arrived!!

Wow.  I have so many feelings about this.  I'm excited and very proud that I've finished my project (it's a little late, but hey, better late than never!), but I'm also sad at the idea of it ending, given that (for the most part) I've enjoyed it immensely.  Right now things are feeling pretty bittersweet.  This project has been part of my life for a really long time, so it's going to be hard to let it go and move on to the next project (although I've got a project coming up really soon that I'm super excited about so I'll share that shortly!).

As you may have read/heard in some of the interviews I've done, the reason I started this project was to set myself goals and structure when I moved to Seattle.  Moving here was a struggle at first, and it was hard to get away from nagging questions that suddenly popped inside my head (like "what am I doing with my life???").  You know the ones.  Rather than having a massive freak out, I decided to spend my time here dedicated to establishing myself as a composer, and I used this project as a way to quickly build up a portfolio of material, and also to prove to myself that I could do it.

Before I post my very last piece for this project, I'd like to say a massive thank you for stopping by my blog and my SoundCloud page over the last year and a bit, and taking the time to listen to my music - it really has been much appreciated!!

And now for my Week Fifty Two Project!!  My sister Nicole gave me the idea of setting music to a video (thanks Nic!), so I found some fantastic public domain promotional footage from the 1962 Worlds Trade Fair held here in Seattle.  Greg helped me to edit it (well, he did most of the work really), and I set it to music.  So without further ado, here is the last installment of Fifty Two Weeks:

YouTube clip with accompanying film:




Or of course you can just listen to it on my SoundCloud page:

Week Fifty One Project

Week Fifty One.  Wow, my project is nearly over?!

I've continued the theme of 'firsts' this week too, with Week Fifty One being written in both Logic and Ableton.  Whilst I'm a long(ish)-time Logic person (before Logic I was using Pro Tools), I'm wanting to start gigging with my solo music later this year and I've realized I don't have a hope of reproducing any of my music live unless I can wrap my head around programs such as Ableton Live.  So I'm giving it my best shot!

Something I have realized is that I really need to improve my production skills.  Big time.  I consider my recordings to be 'lo-fi' which is fine…. if it's intentional, but really it's not intentional, it's just I lack the skills (?) to refine and polish my tracks the way I'd like to. Although I should be a bit kinder on myself and acknowledge that these pieces are getting written and recorded over a couple of days, so I haven't really spent the hours needed to get the level to polish I want.  I guess that's what I'll be doing when I start working on my album….  Yes, ALBUM!  After skirting around the edges of my EP, I decided to sit tight and wait until I have enough material that I'm happy with to release an album.  So, once Fifty Two Weeks is up next week (OMG I'M NEARLY THERE!!!!), I'm going to concentrate on an album which will most likely consist of some Fifty Two Weeks material as well as some new material.

I'm not sure what's going to happen to this blog after next week, so if you would like to stay up to date with my happenings on, please feel free to follow my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MadeleineCocolasMusic

Week Fifty Project and a collaboration with Kate Olson!

So there's a few 'firsts' for me with this week's piece.  The most exciting is getting the opportunity to collaborate with the amazing Seattle-based saxophonist Kate Olson.  I first came across Kate at one of her gigs (her band Ask The Ages was playing with my friend Jenn's band How Things Work), and I was immediately drawn to her saxophone playing.  I was super excited when Kate was kind enough to agree to collaborate with me on this week's project!

The second thing is getting over my fear of drums and including drums in this week's project.  I may have mentioned before, but there's been a couple of projects I've wanted to include drums, and I've tried to do them myself, and well, they turned out horribly. So now I'm going to come clean - that is not me on the drums.  That is in fact Greg, who is an actual drummer.  Like with drum sticks and stuff.  He recorded the drums on his electronic drum kit (when Lucille wasn't getting in the way).

The third thing is including samples!  Except where I've acknowledged people collaborating with me, I've made all other sounds and noises for my Fifty Two Weeks Project myself.  This is the first time I've sampled something, and I went for some old public domain radio show material.  I found this incredible radio story called "The Doll" from the 1945 "Weird Circle" series, and picked out my favorite parts, which was really hard because there were soooo many good bits...  I think I'm going to listen to more from that series just for fun.

Here's my Week Fifty Project:

Lucille developed an unhealthy obsession with drum sticks.  It was weird. 

Week Forty Nine Project

Oh my gosh, I'm nearly at Week Fifty Two!!  I really want to make the most of these last few weeks - I feel like I'm out of that musical rut I was in recently which is good news.  This week, I went back to my roots so to speak, with a layered piano piece.  Hope you enjoy!




Ok, in other news I have a Mixcloud mix and some recent photos to share with you.

Bigo & Twigetti recently asked me to compile a mix of my favorite music at the moment.  Ummm… yes please! There's loads of amazing music out there, but recently my ears have been glued to musicians such as Tim Hecker, Colin Stetson, Julia Holter & Nils Frahm, so I included those guys as well as a few of my all time favorites such as Dirty Three, Brian Eno/David Byrne, Arvo Part & of course Philip Glass.  I've called it Music for a Rainy Day, so feel free to check it out on Mixcloud link below:

Music for a Rainy Day by Bigo & Twigetti on Mixcloud

And to finish up here's a few of my favorite snaps from the past week:

Coloured Easter Eggs which didn't end up being the massive disaster they threatened to be when I started out.  

Couch time with Lucille. 

Rat City Roller Girls!

View from our shared rooftop balcony.  Can't wait for summer to properly kick in here so I can start enjoying this space a lot more!

Week Forty Eight Project

I woke up today super motivated to get through this week's project, and not even two building-wide fire alarms (both necessitating an evacuation) could stop me.  Thank goodness there was no actual fire.

After a stalling on Week Forty Eight for a few days, I managed to get it all written today.  It is based on a foundation of synth sounds and glitchy noises with the main piano theme being repeated a bunch of times, but each time slightly differently, so it's not just a loop.

I can't believe I only have 4 pieces to go!!!! I'm so excited at the prospect of finishing this project - I almost can't believe I've managed to get through it all.  Honestly if I knew how much work it was going to be when I started I almost think I might not have done it.  So I'm really glad I had no idea :  )

Week Forty Seven Project

As I mentioned last week, I'm consciously going a bit more electronic-y at the moment.  There's still piano and other acoustic instruments in this week's piece, but there's also quite a lot of synth, some tremolo and arpeggiators.  I played it to Greg and he said he thought it was a bit sci-fi and I probably have to agree.  When I think of electronic music, I immediately think of all my favorite electronic artists growing up, namely anything by Vangelis, Mike Oldfield or Rick Wakeman.  Yup, those were my go to staple synth people.  Needless to say, one of my favorite records ever is Tubular Bells.  I think I may have even mentioned that before :  )

Anyhow, I'm about to pop out and grab a Sunday night vino, but I wanted to post this track first, so without further ado, I present Week Forty Seven!

An interview with Second Inversion

I recently discovered a fantastic new radio station in Seattle called Second Inversion.  Second Inversion are part of King FM (the classical station here) and are devoted to supporting and giving exposure to new modern music.  I was so excited to hear about this because there's so much great new music getting made these days that might otherwise fall through the cracks, so it's fantastic to hear of such a dedicated group of people spending time in this genre of music.

I was completely stoked when they reach out to me recently and very kindly asked me to come into the studios and record a show about my 52 Weeks project!  Of course I very willingly obliged, and I'm pleased to say that below is a link to the show.  I talk about about the inspiration behind 52 Weeks and also a bit about 12 pieces I chose to play for the show.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun!

Week Forty Six Project

I was beginning to worry that I was going to have to tell you I had a really hard time with this week's project as well.  I nearly fell into a bit of a rut again, and then Greg calmly told me I should use some of his synthesizer and electronic equipment.  Which I rarely (ermm read: never) touch.  If I'm going to make up excuses for myself, I guess piano and acoustic instrument sounds are my 'go to' thing to the detriment of electronic options which are available to me.  And that's a really terrible inexcusable reason, so I'm determined to change my ways and become more electronic-y!  And it's not that I don't like electronic music either because I really do.  One of my top 3 albums of last year was Tim Hecker's brilliant "Virgins".  Amazing.

Anyhow, it's no Tim Hecker, but here's my first dive into the realm of experimental(ish) electronic music as brought to you by our Dave Smith Mopho analog synthesizer and Memory Man pedal!


And in case you're interested, I thought I'd also share a photo of my bedroom 'studio' so you can see where all my pieces are getting made.  The only thing missing is Lucille, who often decides to take a nap on the keyboard when I sit down to do some work.

'Hana' and 'My Winter Eyes' released by Bigo & Twigetti

As I recently mentioned, London based label Bigo & Twigetti asked me to write a piece for their soon to be released Spring Sampler, and I very willingly obliged and wrote a track titled 'Hana'! Bigo & Twigetti are a fantastic London based label, and I'm thrilled to be included on their release. The album is being released on 24 March, but in the meantime you can hear 'Hana' on Soundcloud:



Also I'm a bit slow on posting this (and I promised I would a while back), but Bigo & Twigetti had also included my track 'My Winter Eyes' on their Winter Sampler, which is now out through Bandcamp and iTunes.  You can stream 'My Winter Eyes' here:

Week Forty Five Project (and some sparkly shoes)

If you've read the last couple of entries of this blog, it won't come as a surprise to you that I've been in a bit of a musical rut the last couple of weeks.  I was starting to feel like my projects were a bit uninspiring and 'samey' and I was having trouble getting something out to be honest.  So this week I have broken out of the ambient style of pieces I've been writing lately and created a more grating and percussive piece, and I quite like it.  I think I just needed to change things up a little bit.

Now Week Forty Five is out of the way….. I've got to tell you….. I just bought the BEST SHOES!!!  They're glittery oxfords and they got their first outing tonight!  I can't wait for rainy season to be over (I think we're on our way) and then these babies are going to get a serious workout.  

Week Forty Four Project

Again, truthfully have to say I'm not super into this week's project.  It seems to be a current trend. I don't know whether it's because it's 1am and I've lost perspective, or whether it's just not that great (I think it's the latter).  So, it is with quite a lot of hesitation that I'm putting this piece up.  I have to - it's been 12 days since my last posting.  Although, I actually have been quite busy writing music this week!  I was asked by the label Bigo & Twigetti to contribute a piece for their upcoming Spring Sampler so I've been writing a new piece 'Hana' which should be released soon (I'll keep you posted)! Exciting! Ok, but before that here's Week Forty Four Project:


Music aside, here's a few photos from the past week:

SJP?!  So I was walking through Nordstrom (to see if they had a pair of glittery Oxford shoes which I'm currently in love with), and SJP made an appearance?!  She was launching her new show line and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Sweet!

Ok, I CANNOT WAIT to bust this one out!!  It's a vintage jewel-tone jumpsuit!!  I need to find the right paid of platforms to wear it with, and then it's going to be my go to outfit for spring.  

Beautiful Ballard.  Even the derelict parts are lovely. 

Week Forty Three Project

Struggle struggle struggle.  That's what this week's project was like.  Apart from writers block, I've been dealing with technical issues and frustrations.   But this is a warts and all project, so I'm putting Week Forty Three up regardless!  This is a very dense piece, and by that I mean that there's a lot going on in the mid-range frequencies.  This is intentional, but I would actually like to work on having all these instruments and sounds sitting next to each other a little better.  In addition to composing, I'm obviously recording and mixing these pieces myself, and even after week Forty Three I sometimes feel like I'm still only at the start of a pretty huge learning curve.  I'm not sure about how I feel about this week's project.  I often need to take a few days to allow my pieces to sink in and make a decision on whether I like them or not.

So here it is:



I think I may have mentioned that I volunteer a couple of days a week at the Seattle Opera, and as a result I get free tickets to their dress rehearsals, so this week I was fortunate enough to see their production of Menotti's "The Consul".  The only other 'modern' opera I've seen is "Tomorrow, In A Year" by The Knife, so I was really excited to see what The Consul was like (especially as it won a Pulitzer Prize for music), and I was not disappointed.  I like opera, but usually glaze over when people try to explain why the stories of Rigoletto and The Magic Flute are relevant today.  In fact, I really don't care about the stories.  I unashamedly go for the music.  However The Consul was different.  I loved the score, which I found very accessible (and reminded me a little of golden era Hollywood film scores), but I found the story itself to be gripping and more than relevant today.  It was particularly poignant to me considering Australia's current political climate which is sadly and incomprehensibly hostile to refugees.  Whoever knew that a 3 hour opera about applying for a visa could be so compelling?!

Week Forty Two Project

This week I went for a kind of rousing cinematic feel.  Greg had suggested that I write a soundtrack-y type of piece, which I was in the mood to do, so  here's the opening credits for a film that doesn't exist.  Perhaps the camera would be panning across a lake? Through countryside? Or….. filming SNOW!!!!!!!  Ok more on snow in just a second… first here's my Week Forty Two Project:


Ok, back to the snow thing.  We finally got some in Seattle, and it was beautiful!!  It happened last Saturday night, so Greg and I kept popping out of our cosy apartment to do some laps of the block.

Me taking a photo of Greg taking a photo just outside our apartment.  

Midnight snow angel!

Ummmm…. I'm kinda excited….

Week Forty One Project

Week Forty One!  At it's core this is a very straightforward, repetitive, and perhaps even mildly soothing piano number.  However, add a bit of glitch and some slightly dissonant chords, and I've ended up with a piece that I think oozes with uneasiness.  I seem to write a lot of pieces with some form of unresolved tension, and this week is definitely no exception.  Take a listen:



In sporting news (yes, there's a first for everything on this blog!), I think it would be remiss of me to be living in Seattle and not at least mention that…. we won the Super Bowl!!  Now honestly speaking I'm not a massive sports fan, and the only American football game I've watched is, errr, the recent Super Bowl final, but that didn't stop my from going to a Super Bowl party and sporting some appropriately colored Seahawk inspired nails:

"When I Knew I Loved You" single released!

Hello!

So I've finally officially released my first single "When I Knew I Loved You" (for those who have been following my project you may recognize it as revamped version of my Week Twenty Three Project)!

If you feel so inclined, the track is available for purchase from iTunes and Amazon, and you can stream it on Spotify as well.

I'll probably release a few more singles and then release an album later this year (I've decided to skip the EP and go straight on to an album).  I'm a few days late with my Week Forty-One project, but that should be going up soon too.

Oh, and go the 'Hawks!!

Week Forty Project

I always thought that when I hit the "forties" of this project, it would feel like the countdown is on, and well, it does!  Not that I'm sure it's a good thing?  I think I'm really going to miss this project once it's over.

I've been a bit unwell this week (nothing too serious) and I think it's reflected in this week's piece.  Week Forty is a low energy, lethargic track that is definitely channelling my current energy levels.  I've used a lot of techniques that I've already explored throughout this project, including highly reverbed piano, multiple vocal layers, manipulated noise and reversed tracks, so while there's not a lot of surprises in this track, it was soothing to write (after my two other failed attempts at Week Forty).

On the plus side of being unwell, I have managed to get quite a few episodes of Midsomer Murders under my belt while lying on the couch.  After exhausting all my Hercules Poirot options I've discovered that Midsomer Murders is a perfect replacement!

Ok, enough of my viewing habits, here's Week Forty:

Week Thirty Nine Project - experiments with white noise

This week's project is a bit of an extension from last week.  Last week, I used white noise to underpin and add texture to my piece, and I played around with the glitch program LiveCut.  This week, my project consists solely of manipulated white noise with no other instruments.

My aim was to elicit rhythms and tones through manipulating the white noise, and I found it really interesting to see the combinations I was able to come up with.  I used a bunch of effects, but my favorite was the denoiser which produced the beautiful bell like tones.

When I Knew I Loved You

So I've got some exciting news!! I'm releasing my first single "When I Knew I Loved You" on 1 February!  In the meantime, here's the artwork for it:

Week Thirty Eight Project

I asked Greg what sort of piece I should write this week, and he suggested the idea of incorporating some white noise into the piece, and I thought that would be a great idea!

I downloaded some white noise under a creative commons license from the website http://www.freesound.org and played around with it.  It was very relaxing and calming so I wanted to dirty it up a bit.  I've never experimented with any 'glitch' but I thought it would be a good chance to, so  I downloaded a great free glitch plugin called Livecut from http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/livecut/ and played around with that too.  The result is some glitchy white noise underpinning a staccato-driven piece.  I love the glitch effect so I'll try to play around with it a bit more in upcoming weeks.

So here's my Week Thirty Eight project:



Also, I'm excited to announce that one of my tracks has been included in the wonderful London based label Bigo & Twigetti's winter sampler!  I'll post more about that once it gets release.