The first official release of duo of rompish and frank improvisers Pierre Borel and Joel Grip, The Great European Stool Sample is a chatty constitution of constraints. The duo play with precision, isolation and possibilities of multi-layered communication. This production originates the wish to continue perform and execute the unsuspected through an already composed object – the recording. Herr Borelgrip is a witty contradiction in itself projecting sound, text and rhythmical ideas as if being together, simultaneously, as if being alone.
The music of Pierre Borel and Joel Grip started taking form in the triangle drawn up by Stockholm, Berlin and Paris in 2008. They have continuously been developing their music on stage in front of audiences, and therefore inevitably, hints with trust and failure. The Great European Stool Sample is a studio recording, but plays with the idea of it being a continuation of an active event in wich you as a listener can mix and change what to hear.
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For a number of years now, energetic double bassist, filmmaker and producer Grip has played an important role for the new scenes of improvised music in Europe. As founder of Umlaut Records, he opened up for creative forms of organizing collectives of musicians and promoting their music internationally. Since 2003 he has been one of the main organizers of Hagenfesten in Dala-Floda, Sweden, a stand-alone festival, and quite frankly possibly the most pleasant venue for free improvised music not only in Sweden but in the whole of Europe. Few other places offer quite the same endearing combination of sophisticated musical risk-taking, and up-beat, social get-together. Grip’s musicianship is informed by a similar knack for welding musical sophistication with social communication, often with an analog film camera at hand. With a handful of short films Joel Grip met mexican filmmaker Mauricio Hernández and shortly the film production company Umlicht was established. They are right now working on their second feature film together.
www.joelgrip.com / www.umlicht.com
