Alexandra Grimal Trio
Shape / Live at the Sunset
2009 - Disques Futura et Marge, Futura Records: Marge 42 
http://futuramarge.free.fr/fr/listemarge.php

* Alexandra Grimal: saxophones ténor & soprano
* Antonin Rayon: orgue Hammond & clavinet
* Emmanuel Scarpa: batterie
 
http://www.alexandragrimal.com/

Reviews
~~~~~~~

by Stef

To be honest, the first track of this album mesmerized me, sucking me into a
weird musical world, and it kept me in that state till long after the album
stopped, mainly because of the unusual combination of sax, hammond organ and
drums, playing some incredibly intense, highly uptempo almost a-rhythmic music,
which has a kind of strange halting drive, like it wants to move forward yet
gets dragged back the whole time, like running without moving. Alexandra Grimal
plays the sax, and how, with all her heart and body, stunningly,
sensitively. Antonin Rayon plays the organ, creating some weird aural
landscape, uninhabitable at times, often inhospitable, rarely sweet, while
Emmanuel Scarpa does the drumming, breaking all possible patterns while keeping
the drive going (how does he do that?). Especially on the long first track
"Mouvances", this leads to some great listening experience. Something totally
new, yet also attractive, powerful and sensitive at the same time. The second
piece, the one-minute long "En Silence", captures the essence of the music:
dark, somewhat industrial, yet fragile at the same time. This vision is further
expanded upon in the long "Le Sang N'Est Pas Bleu" (the blood is not blue), a
slow and equally depressing piece, on which Grimal's high soprano is the only
light in the darkness, yet then she switches to tenor, and her wailing becomes
deeper, more desperate. At times it's hard to categorize this music as
jazz. The sounds produced by Rayon and Scarpa are more based on rock tradition,
creating an atmosphere that is in essence alien to jazz, but one in which
Grimal's playing fits perfectly. And as the lead voice, she is the one defining
the music, its evolution, its sound, its otherworldliness, its agonizing
terror, its intense expressivity, its vulnerability. What a voice for a debut
album : strong, full of character and what a powerful musical vision! Highly
recommended.

--

par Jean Buzelin (fr) 
http://www.culturejazz.fr/spip.php?article1117