Alexandra Grimal & Giovanni Di Domenico - Shakkei (Relative Pitch Records, 2025)

By Stef Gijssels

French saxophonist Alexandra Grimal and Italian pianist Giovanni Di Domenico have performed and released albums over the years, in different ensembles. This is their fourth duo album, after "Down The Hill" (2020), after "Ghibli" (2011) and "Chergui" (2014), and it is an absolute winner. 

Recorded live in Ghent, Belgium in January 2023, the duo brings us five improvised pieces with Japanese titles. "Komori" means "a person who tends to trees", "Ishi No Irai" means "Request Of The Stone", "Kuden" means "(oral) tradition", "Sanmai" "absorbing oneself in something", "Korishiro" "object to which a spirit is drawn or summoned". If anything, these titles suggest an organic, nature inspired and spiritual musical excursion. Grimal plays tenor and soprano saxophones, Di Domenico plays grand piano, celesta and organ. The music is fragile, ethereal, lyrical and very precise. Both Grimal and Di Domenico master a wide variety of styles and influences, to the extent that a lot of their music would not even match our blog's profile, yet this album will please fans of free improv and avant-garde alike. 

The music is rich, complex despite its spontaneity, light-hearted yet deep. 

The pièce de résistance is the twenty minute long "Sanmai" - starting with a smartphone tone from the audience - on which De Domenico switches to organ. The latter instrument gives more gravitas to the sound, a more solemn and grand vista compared to the more delicate piano pieces. Grimal takes on the sound by long single tones from her tenor, with growing intensity and timbral extensions, resulting in a mesmerising effect. After a little more over six minutes, her tone becomes lyrical, somewhat naive, gentle, playful and on soprano, completely changing the atmosphere of the piece without losing its essential focus and sense of direction. The organ's dark tone from the beginning shifts into a more light-hearted theme and takes over the piece after another six minutes, only to change again into a more unpredictable environment. And it keeps shifting. The effect is astonishing, fascinating. 

I liked their previous albums a lot, but this is the strongest one. Both artists have a very strong sensitivity for each other's sound, allowing to co-create as if every note was planned, as if every change and shift was agreed upon instead of the joint movement into a new uncharted sonic space, and perfected this over the years. 

Don't miss it!