Rosas & Björn Schmelzer / Graindelavoix
Founded in 1999 by Björn Schmelzer, the Antwerp ensemble Graindelavoix takes its name from an essay by Roland Barthes. "The grain is the body in the voice that sings, the hand that writes, in the member that executes," the French semiologist asserted. What interests Björn Schmelzer, a ethnomusicologist by training, fascinated by early music, is the relationship of the notation and what is not written, that is, the knowledge and know-how of the interpreter that permit him to make a work come alive again beyond the score, through ornamentation, improvisation, phrasing and gesture. Between transmission and creation, Graindelavoix clears its own path to revisit sound images of the past.
MF, May, 2011.