Secret evils
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| Photo by Grégory Navarra |
Catherine Graindorge is a Belgian violinist, violist,
composer and actress. Creativity is the meaning and the motor of her life. “The
secret of us all” is her debut solo album, released in September 2012, but her artistic
career is full of another amazing experiences. She has played with John Parish
(PJ Harvey), Bertrand Cantat and Pascal Humbert (Détroit), Hugo Race (Nick Cave
and the Bad Seeds, True Spirit), Andrea Schroeder, Nox, Monsoon, One One One
and Long Distance Operators, the project she has created along with Hugo Race.
She loves experimentation and improvisation in order
to look for a no boundaries creativity using special effects, loops,
distortions and delays creating a deeply poetic and personal atmosphere.
Collaboration with inspiring artists is also part of her artistic view and “The
secret of us all” counted with very special guests: Marc Huyghens from Venus,
Joy and Hugo Race (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sepiatone, Hugo Race &
the True Spirit…
Her artistic work also includes composing works for
theatre and cinema as well as her work as an actress and theatre creations like
Cognac that she created and performed
along with Bernard Van Eeghem and was premiered at the Théâtre National de la
Communauté française in Brussels in 2013, or Kayak which she created and performed along with Katja Dreyer and
again with Bernard Van Eeghem, premiered in 2011 at the Brussels Beursschouwburg.
Welcome to the secret of us all.
What’s behind The
secret of us all?
My own secrets, my restreined
emotions, all words / evils I could never get out from me.
How would you define your solo music?
Repetitive, organic,
tormented and sweet, melancholic.
Violinist, violist, composer and actress. Art is your
life?
Yes, I live only by and for
art. And I make no concession. I choose the people I want to work with.
Sometimes I feel very lonely but at the same time, the path I walk is unique
and littered with surprises.
Which role do you prefer: performer or composer?
To compose and to play are part of
the same process, they are inseparable. I improvise and record myself, and then
I listen to me. Sometimes a piece born from the first draft, sometimes I restart
an idea. But my songs are always born from playing, not from an idea on paper.
You are also member of alternative rock bands like
Monsoon and Nox. What differences are there in comparison with your solo
project?
I played for years with
Monsoon but this group has not existed for almost 5 years. There, clearly, I
brought violin keys but I didn’t compose songs. In Nox or the new project that
Hugo Race and I created, 'Long Distance Operators' - a concert at the Botanique
May 16, 2014 and an album in 2015 - we compose together and my proposals for
the violin or the viola take up much space. There is the idea of sharing. Solo,
I share my ideas with myself ... it's sometimes more difficult but interesting
to dive in itself. There is more silence ...
Returning to your solo album, the opening track is Animal based on a pizzicato that sounds
like life’s pulse. The tune has a melancholic air. Why this melancholy?
I am a deeply melancholic
... I like to laugh and I love self-deprecating but when I take my violin in
the arms, it is this melancholy that always arises.
Ashes & soul sounds powerful, dark, intense and even strident. Is
it the fight for surviving?
Yes, somehow ... This piece begins in flames and ends in the air. The
music allows me to rejoice my anger, my anxieties.
Air is one of the most special moments in the album
because of its vocal arrangement. Just your voice creating a beautiful moment,
just before the piece Birth. What’s
behind your Air?
I created Air and Birth for
a dance theater performance that spoke of breath, from the first breath to the
last. I was playing on stage with an actress and a dancer. Air is born from the
words of the actress, who spoke about the birth.
One of the pieces is titled Fragile. How do you live the fragility of existence?
I saw it every day. Life
is short and fragile and everything goes so fast. This is what makes existence intense
but also scary.
Could you tell us a dream?
A dream that I often had
when I was a child: I float in the universe and before me books parade
endlessly...
Listen to Catherine Graindorge's album The Secret of us all here
An interview by Juan Carlos Romero
Catherine Graindorge website catherinegraindorge.tumblr.com
Photo by Grégory Navarra
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