Fiona Grond, Moritz Stahl & Philipp Schiepek - Poesias (2023)

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Fiona Grond, Moritz Stahl & Philipp Schiepek - Poesias (2023)

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Voice, guitar and alto saxophone in intimate, sensitive interplay. And music full of warmth, depth and with surprising twists.

"It has always been really important for me," says Fiona Grond, “not just to be the singer with the melody while the other musicians are doing everything else." So, on her ACT debut album "Poesias", the Swiss-born vocalist's voice functions as one of three instruments acting as equal partners, her singing closely intermeshed with Moritz Stahl's tenor saxophone and Philipp Schiepek's guitar. The trio first met in Fiona Grond's adoptive city of Munich, where the local scene has been steadily gaining profile and visibility for a few years now; this trio counts as a significant new discovery on the Munich scene.

Fiona Grond's music draws the listener in with its hushed tones, its awareness of the spaces between the notes, its contrasts and frictions, and the way it both defies expectations and breaks with convention. The charm of this music only really reveals itself when one lets it work its magic, when one listens carefully and most importantly of all, truly feels it. There is a saying that people from the coast tend to look into the distance whereas people from the forests and mountains turn their gaze inward. In this respect, Fiona Grond's Swiss origins seem to have been formative for the narrative perspective: "Poesias" - meaning ‘poems’ in Switzerland’s fourth national language, Romansh - is an inner search for thoughts and feelings, sometimes with, sometimes without words. "When something affects me, and I find the right words and phrases for it, then I write them down, says Fiona Grond. “But if the music doesn't want any lyrics, then it doesn't need any." Furthermore, she reflects, "I try, especially at the beginning of the composition process, to let myself drift and not to judge, but rather to let the music simply happen."

This process of listening to the music and reflecting on it continues in the interplay with Moritz Stahl and Philipp Schiepek. It can be heard very clearly that here are three people playing together who are very close to each other both artistically and personally: guitarist Philipp Schiepek proves once again quite how versatile and stunningly musical he is, whereas saxophonist Moritz Stahl - otherwise to be found in rip-roaring jazz-with-electronica settings such as "Ark Noir" or the "Jazzrausch Bigband" - impresses with how subtle and delicate his sound can be, with a particularly fine feeling for colour and texture.

Grond, Stahl and Schiepek form a trio which interacts naturally and organically. The depths of concentration which they find are as unusual and original as their voice-saxophone-guitar ensemble. The music which they explore also covers a wide musical field - from Fiona Grond's own compositions to a piece by the duo of Sidsel Endresen and Bugge Wesseltoft, which, she explains was especially influential for her, to arrangements of folklore from the Graubünden region, and the"Sarabande" from Johann Sebastian Bach's B minor Partita for solo violin.

Hearing this group live in concert, one often has the impression of eavesdropping on their creative process as it happens. So, what producer Andreas Brandis wanted from the sessions at the renowned Artesuono Studio in Udine was to distil the experience, to capture a concentrated form of its essence. Although the trio, through the experience of performing the material live, know every twist and turn of the pieces on the album, there was practically no piece that was not re-evaluated and focused on its core during the production process. Fiona Grond remembers: "Andreas and I talked a lot beforehand and exchanged demos again and again. And also during the recording session we revisited everything and changed quite a lot, especially in the arrangements. In the end we had often gone quite far from the original versions, but all these changes felt organic and logical. Most of the tracks on the album are first takes of the new versions."

This remarkable recording is particularly touching and affecting for its depth, warmth and transparency, and for its glorious sound. This is almost spiritual music, and listeners who allow themselves to enter this magical world will find that spaces open up that they will be keen to explore again and again.