The latest releases reviewed

COLLEEN
Les Ondes Silencieuses
Leaf
***

Few can hold a candle to Parisian musician Cecile Schott when it comes to discovering intriguing sounds in the most unexpected places. While her last album consisted of micro-orchestrations based entirely around antique music boxes, Les Ondes Silencieuses has Schott's minimalism tracked on a home-made 17th-century style cello and other acoustic instruments. What's interesting about this softly elegant, minimalist and subtle bunch of sample-free tracks (you'd be hard pressed to tag them as songs in any sense of the word) is just how much emotional punch they manage to pack. As a result, it's probably the closest Schott has come to tracing some Satie lines into her painstakingly detailed work. For those in search of gorgeously pitched ambience with just a touch of ennui, these silent waves may well do the trick. She plays Dublin's Crawdaddy on June 16th. www.colleenplays.org   JIM CARROLL

Download tracks: Echoes & Coral; Le Labyrinthe