NAU NUA: GRAŻYNA BIENKOWSKI

A guide for imagination

I had the chance of seeing her performing life in Brussels a couple of years ago and it was one of those moments in which one feels is living the beginning of something really special. Grażyna Bienkowski is a Belgian composer and pianist of Polish origin who looks for creating atmospheres and images through her music. After the release of a self-produced demo titled Antichambre (2010) in a minimalist piano style and collaborations in different projects with musicians like the French guitarist Patrice Soletti, she’s now working in a duo project along with the Belgian guitarist Teuk Henri and mainly working on her solo compositions, always mixing genres to find new guides for her imagination.

We can read in your website that sentence by Keith Jarrett: “Improvisation is the only way to be present and true to oneself”. What about reason?

The biography was written by a friend of mine who is also a writer: Milady Renoir (www.miladyrenoir.be). When she proposed me to write it, I took this as a very good idea to have another regard of what I’m doing in music or who I’m. She has chosen this sentence by herself. Knowing that Keith Jarrett is a kind of model, one of the best musicians for me. As my way of playing the piano and composing is my way of being in life and as I’m widely inspired by Keith Jarrett’s piano solo realisations, she probably found that this sentence would be in echo with my work and universe. We didn’t talk about that but after reading it I was completely agreed with her choice. In fact, for me, when you are improvising in music, you have to let your human being true and free to communicate to your audience the most important emotions and I frequently use improvisation when I’m playing alone or even with others.

You explain your first album was a 45 rpm in which music and narrative were working in tandem. What was this album and what do you learn from it?

It’s a childhood memory. A story for kids accompanied by music. I liked it because the sound (voice and music) was the only guide for my imagination.

Why is the mix of music genres a personal thing for you?

Because music with others is primarily a question of humanity. Without exchanges, how can you feed your music, your inspiration? Exchanges are often mixes of genres, and I think it’s the same with music. It’s a human adventure.

Why did you get inspired by hospitality?

This piece was directly inspired by a short story from the book “Music for Chameleons” by Truman Capote. I’ve kept the same title because it represented a notion that I really want to meet in the real life. The hospitality is the action of receiving others in your world with kindness. As the main title of my demo and as a quite calm and linear composition, I’ve found it was the good title for this.

What’s the idea behind the title Antichambre?

Antichambre is the French word for “anteroom” which is a small room leading to a more important one. I did the demo (which contents only a few minutes of music) in the goal to release a CD with my piano works after. And it gives also the idea of a kind of intimacy which I can feel in my music as well.

Is it your music a fugue?

I would say my music is a kind of escape.

Tell us about your future projects.

I’m working now on one of my duo project with the Belgian guitarist Teuk Henri. We would like to record an EP or maybe more in 2013. I’m also pursuing my solo compositions and I’m preparing pieces based on the poems of Silvia Plath. In the middle of this, some new collaborations and concerts are looming and I’m more and more touching other music genres with my specificity…to be continued so.

What would you do in an abandoned factory?

I would put a piano concert and would enjoy the empty space and the calm in it to full and invade it with my sound. Creating musical textures and atmospheres with little.

GRAŻYNA BIENKOWSKI VIDEOS here

More about GRAŻYNA BIENKOWSKI in NAU NUA here

An interview by Juan Carlos Romero

Grażyna Bienkowski website www.grazynabienkowski.com