Rachel Grimes ...

About Rachel Grimes

1.

Pianist, composer, and arranger Rachel Grimes has created a singular body of work, both as a solo artist and as a member of the group Rachel's, that negotiates a surprisingly graceful alliance between contemporary classical and indie rock. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Grimes began playing piano as a child, and studied music at the University of Louisville, receiving a B.A. in 1993. In 1991, her friends Jason Noble (guitar and bass) and Christian Frederickson (viola), living in Baltimore, recorded a cassette-only EP they called Rachel's Halo, and they passed along a copy to Grimes. Grimes liked the music, and she teamed up with Noble and Frederickson to form the group Rachel's (named not for Grimes, but for Noble's automobile). The group, whose membership would expand and contract with the needs of each project (sometimes including as many as 17 musicians, and at other times just featuring the core trio), struck a deal with the successful independent label Quarterstick Records, releasing their first album, Handwriting, in 1995. Grimes was commissioned to write music for a dance piece about the artist Egon Schiele, and her score became the basis for Rachel's second album, 1996's Music for Egon Schiele, while the ambitious and expansive The Sea and the Bells, written by several members of the group, including Grimes, appeared later the same year. Rachel's would release three more albums (including a collaboration with Matmos) before the band went on an informal hiatus after 2003's Systems/Layers, and folded after the death of Jason Noble in 2012.

Since moving on from Rachel's, Grimes has maintained a busy schedule, recording with the indie rock acts Seluah, Watter,Christopher Tignor, the Frames, and Nathan Salsburg, as well as performing with the chamber ensembles Portland Cello Project, Orchestra Kandinskij, Amsterdam Sinfonietta Trio, and Cicada. Grimes was a member of the group King's Daughters and Sons, who released If Then Not When via Chemikal Underground in 2011. Grimes' first solo album, Book of Leaves: For Solo Piano, the first of several meditations on nature, was released in the summer of 2009, and since then, she's released several digital albums and EPs, as well as composing and performing commissioned pieces around the world. In 2015, Grimes released the albumThe Clearing, a cycle of instrumental pieces adapted from her own piano improvisations, and featuring performances from Kyle Crabtree of the Shipping News, Scott Morgan of Loscil, Jacob Duncan ofLiberation Prophecy, and Helen Money.

2.

Most rock musicians who've tried to take a flyer at classical music (or something like it) approach their compositions from a position of bombast (Emerson, Lake & Palmer), melodrama (Paul McCartney), high drama (Elvis Costello), or purposeful eccentricity (Frank Zappa). But as pianist and composer with the groundbreaking ensemble Rachel's, Rachel Grimes showed it was possible to combine the sensibilities and tonal palettes of indie rock and chamber music in a way that flattered both styles and embraced their best qualities, and she's continued to do so in her solo work. Grimes' second proper solo album, 2015'sThe Clearing, collects 11 short pieces (one just over a minute, another eight times that length) that Grimesfirst adapted from her own piano improvisations and then arranged using small ensembles of strings, woodwinds, and percussion. The titles used in The Clearing reflect a pastoral bent, celebrating the natural world outdoors, but the music reflects both the beauty and the dangers of the wilderness, finding a sense of ominous wonder amidst the trees and the night sky. Grimes writes and arranges in simple but bold strokes, allowing her accompanists to add texture and shade while the piano and strings establish melodic structures that provide a sturdy framework for the other elements. Some might debate if The Clearingshould be filed under classical or pop, although the use of structures and ideas gleaned from chamber music doesn't seem pretentious or a stunt in this context, but an approach well suited to the rich minimalism of her compositions. And by the same token, the rock elements of The Clearing aren't trundled in for effect, but grow organically from the performances of Grimes and her gifted crew, just as the recording uses approaches common to pop to reinforce compositions written for orchestral instruments. Rachel Grimeshas given us a collection of new pieces that quietly dazzle with their evocative power, intelligence, and strength, and The Clearing is something lovely and truly extraordinary that ranks with the best, most enveloping music of recent memory.

Artist Biography by Mark Deming

ΠΗΓΕΣ

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rachel-grimes-mn0001650001/biography
http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-clearing-mw0002840256