Grizzana features Swiss composer Jürg Frey at his most introspective, realized by Ensemble Grizzana - Frey (clarinet), Mira Benjamin (violin), Richard Craig (flute), Emma Richards (viola), Philip Thomas (piano), Seth Woods (cello), and Ryoko Akama (organ & electronics). The work, together with companion pieces on the double CD Grizzana and Other Pieces 2009-2014(Another Timbre), marks a deep engagement with sonic transparency, tension, and the delicate equilibrium found in Morandi’s painting. Each instrumental voice is granted space to breathe: violin melodies flicker, clarinet holds long notes in suspended poise, and wind, string, and keyboard instruments blend to create a uniquely open, pastel landscape.
Rather than foreground dramatic development, Frey unfolds his material at a slow, patient pace. Textures arise and dissolve; the ensemble’s restraint magnifies the beauty of unresolved intervals, lingering chords, and acoustic openness. Piano and strings share the foreground in shifting combinations, while flute and clarinet trace fragments or hover on the edge of silence. The ensemble’s superlative control allows micro-details - intonation, bowing, breath, and decay - to come forward, shaping new forms of interaction and inviting the listener into a space of careful attention.
The recording captures more than music: it presents a world where memory, loss, and everyday grace converge. Each track draws on Frey’s belief that “sound is itself meaning” - that the movement of tones, pauses, and subtle interaction embodies far more than structure. Grizzanastands out as a luminous meditation on the boundaries between composition and improvisation, landscape and form, and the enduring resonance of chamber music in the wake of contemporary experiment.
