released June 17, 2022

Alexandra Grimal - soprano saxophone

Recorded by Céline Grangey in the double revolution staircase in the castle of Chambord on September 11, 12,13 2020.
Mixed and mastered in Pantin while birds watching by Céline Grangey in November 2021.

Charcoal on paper by Alexandre Hollan Le Grand chêne de Viols-le-Fort 2020 30x40, photographed by Illés Sarkantyu
Inside photograph © Domaine national de Chambord
licence

label Relative Pitch Records

Alexandra Grimal is a Daddario artist.

tous droits réservés


Press :

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jazzmagazine
"Alexandra Grimal plonge au cœur de la matière sonore, là où l'anonyme et l'intime se confondent pour, en un langage vivant, plastique, en ramener l'épure d'un chant quintessentiel, magnifiquement incarné"
Stéphane Ollivier

'A beautiful album by French reedist Alexandra Grimal - here only on soprano - recorded in the famous double revolution staircase in the castle of Chambord in France.

On eight improvised tracks, she explores sound and space, including some multi phonics wizardry. Strangely enough, the sound is often, damped, despite the stone surroundings, with little echo or spatial resonation, giving a very intimate and fragile closeness to the listener. Her improvisations can vary from the lyrical, as in "Salamandre" to the unexpected as in the short bursts of surprise in "Martinets".

She again confirms her skills as well as the power of her imagination. She has a daring vision on music, and has tried several approaches in the past, some of which I truly liked and others less, but this one is a winner'

Stef Gijssels The Free Jazz Collective

www.freejazzblog.org/2022/08/solo-sax-overview-i.html

'On refuge, Ms. Grimal plays music about architecture, which therefore invokes a convolution of this old quote, namely, "Making music about architecture is like writing about wondering and wandering."'
David Keffer, The Poison Pie Publishing House


'The sound of the soprano sax is recorded not too far from where the mic was placed, hence the sound is warm, bathed in minimal reverb and quiet enchanting. Ms. Grimal plays quietly, slowly placing each note or phrase at a time. Over time, Ms. Grimal starts to stretch out certain notes, putting them on display so that we can notice the texture of each tone or drone. As the lines get longer, Grimal stretches them carefully, each nuance a bit different. There is a method or direction going on here. Ms. Grimal takes a short melodic fragment midway and then takes a part of the fragment and manipulates that part. The process seems organic and seems to breathe the same way we all do most of the time, slowly in & out, in & out… There is a lovely sense of calm at the center here which pervades throughout this entire disc. No histrionics, little or no multiphonics, the pace and focus make this much easier to swallow that the usual solo sax record. A modest yet still somehow engaging solo recital.'
Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery

'The head of the New York-based label Relative Pitch Records Kevin Reilly likes to introduce to the greater audience of free music female musicians from the other side of the Atlantic that are unjustly underrated. French sax player Alexandra Grimal is one of these gifted musicians.(...) Grimal offers eight, contemplative and intimate meditations on sound in time and space, that highlights her multifaceted musical personality. She sketches instant, gentle melodies and dances («salamandre», «Susumu» and «berceuse»), investigates pure sounds and the timbral characteristics of the soprano sax (the 16-minute of «château»), or employs extended yet refined breathing techniques. Silence – the quiet solitude of a lone player as well as actual silences – is a key element in these patient improvisations, as well as Grima’s focus on how short phrases of sound float, swirl and reverberate in the unique architecture of the castle.'
Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts

salt-peanuts.eu/record/alexandra-grimal/?fbclid=IwAR3vSksDGvX3Ttvxpr9n2XDBkduDy1k-IYZpRYfHoZiKmtlbE5o-K7J1cbU

'Somehow, (...) musician Alexandra Grimal has escaped my notice up to now. This solo soprano saxophone release, recorded in the double helix staircase in the castle of Chambord, France during a residency she spent there changes all that. Working with the natural resonance of the open, central edifice, Grimal’s eight pieces, ranging from two to 16 minutes long, utilize sonorous snaking themes that hang and twist back on themselves like the circuitous setting where they were recorded. Grimal utilizes a full tone colored by multiphonics, letting notes hang, filled out by the relatively short decay of the warm reverberations of the space. Grimal lets each piece develop slowly, never rushing notes or ideas, letting densities and volume ebb and flow. Take “château,” where sections drop to a near whisper and then ultimately build to long quavering tones that mount in surging waves. On “martinets,” short notes are placed with sharp attack against silence melding seamlessly in to “vent,” which weaves a songlike line with an abstract lyricism. That sense of songlike structure appears again with “escalier,” which builds from angular, melodic kernels that slowly accrue with a birdsong-like delicacy. A look at Grimal’s site reveals that she’s about to drop a recording of songs with electronics composed during the same residency at Chambord while working on a composition for four voices. Clearly, she’s a on a roll and worth keeping an eye on.'
Michael Rosenstein, The Dusted Review


'une déambulation impressionniste qui agit par vagues qui se retirent et submergent, s’engouffrent dans le précieux escalier imaginé par Léonard de Vinci qui s’avère une belle base pour la musique créée par Alexandra Grimal. Une musique qui lui ressemble, intrinsèquement.'
Franpi Barriaux, Citizen Jazz
www.citizenjazz.com/Alexandra-Grimal-3481027.html

'The music resembles the wind in the morning (...) dancing clouds of sounds'
Spontaneus music Tribune

W przeciwieństwie do płyty poprzedniej, solowa propozycja francuskiej saksofonistki miewa kilka momentów, które zwinne ręce edytora mogłyby wysłać w wieczny niebyt, ale i tak śmiało możemy skonstatować, iż sopranowa przygoda w akustycznych przestrzeniach zamkowych zdecydowanie stanowić winna mocny punkt artystycznego portfolio Alexandry. Co ciekawe, owe chwile dramaturgicznego zawahania recenzent dostrzega w krótszych, końcowych improwizacjach, a to, co najlepsze na albumie odnajduje w dwóch pierwszych odsłonach, szczególnie w trakcie drugiej improwizacji, trwającej ponad kwadrans.

Pierwsza improwizacja otwierać mogłaby awangardowy festiwal muzyki barokowej. Lekka, swobodna narracja, niepozbawiona znamion melodyjności, czy wręcz taneczności, kilka garści melancholii, szczypta suspensu i udane poszukiwanie oddechu cyrkulacyjnego. Grimal nie jest w tej ostatniej kategorii długodystansowcem, lubi zasłuchiwać się w ciszy i szukać gęstego echa własnych pomysłów dramaturgicznych, na ogół bardziej niż udanych. Druga odsłona Refuge, to zaiste perła w zestawie. Artystka porzuca prostsze frazy, tapla się w mroku, pełno wokół niej ciszy. Jej saksofon nie śpiewa, bardziej szumi, mruży oczy i artykułuje wyłącznie suchymi sylabami. Muzyka przypomina wiatr o poranku, niekończącą się mantrę wyczekiwania na nową sekwencję dramatyczną. W kolejnych improwizacjach/ kompozycjach Francuzka powraca do czystych dźwięków. Jej narracja zdaje się przypominać soundtrack do spektaklu baletowego. W czwartej części pomysł opiera się na graniu jednej, maksymalnie dwóch fraz i pogrążaniu się w ciszy. Roztańczone obłoki dźwięków, grane na palcach długimi, czasami zmęczonymi oddechami, utrzymywanymi w ryzach koncepcji narracyjnej. W przedostatniej części opowieść zdaje się mieć nieco więcej życia, pewną ulotną dynamikę. Finałowa narracja, znów budowana raczej krótkimi frazami, pozwala, by cisza rządziła sceną, ale też uwalnia pokłady post-barokowej urody, którymi Grimal bogaciła swój pierwszy utwór na płycie.

spontaneousmusictribune.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-relative-pitch-new-outfit-child-of.html


Die französische Saxofonistin ALEXANDRA GRIMAL hat sich auch als Sängerin im Ensem­ble Dedalus und als Komponistin ambitionierter Werke wie 'humus', 'the monkey in the abstract garden', 'le jardin en mouvement', 'kumo' etc. einen Namen gemacht. Dass ihre Spielerfahrungen ein ganzes Who is Who ergeben – die Ceccaldi-Brüder, Giovanni Di Domenico, Benjamin Duboc, Marc Ducret, Jozef Dumoulin, Joëlle Léandre, Hans Lüde­mann, Jean-Jacques Birgé, Edward Perraud... - , braucht nicht verwundern, sie mischt ja seit 20 Jahre im NowJazz mit. Refuge (RPRSS017) entstand 2020 in der doppelläufigen Wendeltreppe von Schloss Chambord, diesem megalomanen Tuffsteinmonster, und sie kostet da mit dem Soprano die besondere Akustik im Wendelstein des Donjons aus. Indem sie ihre Musik illustriert mit einer Eichenkrone von Alexandre Hollan, dem Meister der Sichtbarmachung von Unsichtbarem, scheint Grimal anzudeuten, dass, wie sie da mit Feuerzunge salamandert (in Hommage an François Ier), tiriliert, brütend die Zeit an sich vorüberziehen lässt, als Sirene ertönt, flötend Blätter und Mauern streift, als Mauersegler schrillt und zuletzt mit 'Berceuse' den Nachthimmel aufs alte Château deckt, ein Hörbar­machen von Unhörbarem mitschwingt – Aura, Schattenspiele, Gerüche, Geschichte: da Vinci, Molière, Moritz von Sachsen, Flaubert... [BA 115 rbd]
Bad Alchemy

badalchemy.de

'the artist’s profundity is audible in every fleeting second (...) This is an illustration of music that, via a respected humility, interacts with our inner space and is appropriate for all types of listening, from “totally focused” to “healing presence” in a room.'
Massimo Ricci, Beyond The Dust

massimoriccibeyond.wordpress.com/2022/08/05/alexandra-grimal-refuge/

Put out on the circuit via Relative Pitch Records on June 17th, 2k22 is "Refuge", the new, eight tracks and roughly 58 minutes spanning album effort created by French saxophone player Alexandra Grimal who's amassed quite an impressive catalogue since appearing first on the longplay circuit back in 2009. Oepning with two solo pieces both exceeding the ten minutes mark Grimal sets the tone for all things to come on this album, providing a playful, almost (Neo)Classical or even rennaissance'esque take on her instrument of choice, the soprano saxophone, in the opening piece that is "Salamandre" whereas the subsequent "Chateau" is following on an eerie, haunted and solemn path into the twilight before losing itself in extended longing hauls which seem to find their nightly response in "Susumu" whereas both "Martinets" and "Vent" go down a road of pronounced minimalist repetition, "Roseliere" and "Escalier" hark back to enchanted Classical motifs from ancient fairytales and the final cut that is "Berceuse" rounds things off on a slightly more playful, yet melancholia infused note for a closing.

www.nitestylez.de/2022/07/alexandra-grimal-refuge-relative-pitch.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR2A0TXk2g9ShxGu5gODrN9KTgjaV0ly4QH0BUzFSerbSC5SWma2L_bW0fs


(...) Les musiques de Grimal retiennent leur souffle, chuchotent, se laissent aller à la méditation, coulent de source, s'envolent.
Jean-Jacques Birgé

www.drame.org/blog/?2023%2F01%2F31%2F5237-solos-d-alexandra-grimal-et-sakina-abdou&fbclid=IwAR2PfMZyAo_Setb3gsc9eAyci8grVuERbhlLucg1ToUuAAW3KhHKB0e3HQo

'Refuge is concerned with silent pauses as much as projected tones, as well as the spatial arrangements of textures from the double staircase in the castle in which it was recorded. As the tracks evolve with reed flutters, curves and irregular trills, sometime output is circular breathed, sometimes tones turn to high-pitched shrills and gaunt puffs and sometimes two separate tandem lines are created. Besides the frequent extended silences and measured stops, reed timbres commonly echo back onto the initial breaths. While some improvisations flow with unbroken Arcadian-style lowing, others pack squeaky doits or strident spetrofluctuation into an unstoppable rush. “Chateau” may be the defining track. Revealing two tone at the top, one clarion and moderate and another lower-pitched one as continuum, intermittent stops then separate atom-sized breaths and hardened reflux during the exposition as burbled as air is forced through the body without key action. Eventually tongue sucks join pummeling yelps to concentrate into a single horizontal breath.'
Ken Waxman, Jazzword

www.jazzword.com/reviews/alexandra-grimal-2/