About this Album — Quartet

ALBUM NOTES

              Com­po­si­ti­on and its per­for­mance can have an orga­nic rela­ti­ons­hip, a balan­ce bet­ween writ­ten and impro­vi­sed. Muri­el Grossmann’s wide com­po­si­tio­nal and per­forming talents reflect in four voice pie­ces like Diver­si­ty and Quint­essence, suite-like pie­ces like Flue­gel and Echo or brisk and ener­ge­tic com­po­si­ti­ons like Andrew. The quar­tet, com­po­sed of Rado­mir Milo­j­ko­vic on gui­tar, David Mar­ro­quin on upright bass and Mar­ko Jela­ca on drums, have beco­me a sound lab — a group, whe­re com­po­si­tio­nal ide­as can be worked out, deve­lo­ped and even­tual­ly recorded.

                Aus­tri­an alto and sopra­no saxo­pho­nist and com­po­ser Muri­el Gross­mann sta­tes that her music star­ted to move bey­ond har­mo­ny — melo­dies them­sel­ves beca­me more inde­pen­dent and streng­t­hens the idea of impro­vi­sing phra­ses and not cli­chés. Gross­mann wea­ves lines with phra­ses from the the­me; she spins deve­lo­p­ments from new moti­ves with hard dri­ving rhyth­mic figu­res, which makes inter­pre­ta­ti­on an exi­t­ing and kicking experience.

                Muri­el Grossmann’s music is com­plex, cal­ling for a simi­lar depth of emo­tio­nal respon­se from the lis­tener, but at the same time the music is high­ly swin­ging, to move the body as well as the spi­rit. This music pro­vi­des the pro­of of her sin­gu­lar for­ce of emo­ti­ons and musi­cal ima­gi­na­ti­on. Alt­hough Grossmann’s music stron­gly reflects her own tem­pe­ra­ment, it is none­theless suf­fi­ci­ent­ly open to allow other indi­vi­dua­lists to be them­sel­ves wit­hin it. Muri­el Gross­mann as a saxo­pho­nist and com­po­ser is buil­ding a very per­so­nal, sub­stan­ti­al style and body of work. The­re is a real moti­va­ti­on in Grossmann’s music and a desi­re to keep fin­ding out who she is and to make her music out of that deepe­ning know­ledge. from the ori­gi­nal liner notes of J.L.Thompson

REVIEWS

             …Enig­ma­tic com­po­si­ti­ons in the hands of a luxu­ry saxophonist.
Mar­ti Far­ré, Jac Maga­zi­ne Bar­ce­lo­na, February/March 2009.

⇐