1.The Herald en Masse 05:29
2.M5 05:51
3.The Theme 06:01
4.Mossgrove & Seaweed 05:45
5.Hollis 06:05
6.M1 06:45
7.Le Petit Salon 06:01	

Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Synthesizer [Juno] – Guillaume Wickel
Drums, Percussion – Yvan Ros
Guitar, Harmonium, Synthesizer [Juno], Electric Piano [Rhodes] – Cyril Secq
Piano – Rachel Grimes
Violin, Kalimba, Metallophone – Vanina Andréani 

Through the Sparkle is a collaboration between French ensemble astrïd and American pianist and composer Rachel Grimes.

Rachel Grimes is best known for her chamber music project Rachel’s, a hugely influential group formed in 1991 in Louisville, Kentucky, releasing six studio albums between 1995 and 2005. She has also released a string of contemporary classical works in recent years on labels such as Temporary Residence. astrïd is a collective of four musicians based in Nantes, releasing records on Rune Grammofon and Home Normal.

After years of mail and email back and forth over the ocean, from Nantes to Kentucky, astrïd invited Rachel to come for a residency to make music together and play shows in France. They gathered for a few days, here and there, in 2012 and 2013 to write songs in Cyril and Vanina's home studio in the countryside.

The compositions found on Through the Sparkle glow with a unique, connected energy and a pure, instinctive musical understanding. Considered contributions from all sides allow the pieces to unfurl naturally. Each note and phrase feels like it simply couldn’t be placed anywhere else in the album.

Charming, gentle and cinematic sounds are found here in abundance. Melodies circle and reveal themselves without force, allowing the listener to focus and explore the depths of what is on offer. Musically, Through the Sparkle is an expansive and evocative album. There is a presence to be felt throughout, from Cyril Secq’s emotive tremelo’d guitars of M5 to the darker, more haunting mood of The Theme, to the tension in Mossgrove & Seaweed. Strings and woodwind coalesce around intricate piano and guitar movements creating a wealth of harmony and melancholy.

Through the Sparkle is a record of miniature symphonies, of elegant restraint. A gracious and generous offering from a group of musicians at one with each other and at the top of their game. ---gizehrecords.bandcamp.com

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1.Got Ahold of Me 04:14
2.Postcard from Pauline 01:45
3.Patsy 02:10
4.Sisterhood of Man 03:19
5.Red House School 05:24
6.The Hysterical Society 02:15
7.Nowhere on Earth 03:24
8.There Is No Other 03:32
9.The Spells 01:32
10.Fontaine Ferry 04:25
11.For So Long 04:40
12.Dix River Doxology 03:21
13.Dolly 01:43
14.Bill of Sale 01:52
15.End of Dominion 12:06
16.Sara 02:44
17.A New Land 03:38 

Voice:  Timbre Cierpke, Joan Shelley, Scott Moore
SATB Choir:  SONUS  
Narrator:  Stephen Webber
Piano:  Rachel Grimes
Harp:  Timbre Cierpke
Guitar:  Nathan Salsburg
Banjo:  Sean Johnson
Percussion:  Sean Johnson, Jecorey Arthur
Violin:  Scott Moore, Erica Pisaturo, Rob Simonds
Viola:  Laura De St. Croix, Evan Vicic
Cello:  Charlie Patton, Cecilia Huerta-Lauf  |  Bass:  Aaron May
Clarinet:  Teddy Abrams
Spoken word:  Jecorey Arthur, Martha Neal Cooke, Rachel Grimes,
Joe Manning, Nathan Salsburg, Joan Shelley, Doris Smith, Bettie Wheeler

The Way Forth, a new folk opera from Rachel Grimes, encompasses lush layers of voices and orchestrations in an experiential, non-linear investigation highlighting perspectives of Kentucky women from 1775 to today.

Inspired by a treasure-trove of family documents, photos, and letters spanning several generations, Grimes began in 2016 to research some of the more vexing questions that came to the surface about these people, places, and events. Fueled by intuition, travel to visit family, photographing, and filming present day rural Kentucky life, the research led to many more questions: What is missing? What is not being said here? What did she really think and feel? Primary historical accounts routinely glossed over people without titles or voting rights, and dehumanized most others by referring to them as objects of desire, savages, or slaves. Further examination formed a framework for trying to reconcile her state’s history and how it relates to the westward expansion and settlement of the United States and ultimately how an era of domination, denial, and pain is reflected in the complex culture of today.

The songs that make up The Way Forth weave back in time through a postcard, a personal account of a long life on a farm, traces of folk tunes, names, places, and rivers, all woven into an emotional fabric of yearning, nostalgia, grief, and the rich intimacies of everyday life. Initially solo voices are heard above vivid orchestrations, expanding with the choral voices of the community through fragments of traditional church music and popular tunes. The scope widens to include a modern male narrator’s reflections on a place battered by greed, civil war, bigotry, and the exploitation of natural resources. Through music, voice, and film, The Way Forth honors the emotional legacy of the silenced, the holistic, the beauty in quotidian life, and explores the eternal grace and redemption of time, as symbolized by the great Dix and Kentucky Rivers.

Instrumentation includes piano, harp, strings, choir, lead vocals and narrators. Special guest collaborators include Stephen Webber (SITI Company), Timbre Cierpke (SONUS), Joan Shelley, and Nathan Salsburg. Experimental film created in collaboration with Catharine Axley.

Rachel Grimes is a composer and pianist who creates music for chamber ensembles, orchestras, film, and collaborative live performances. Her work has been performed by ensembles such as the Louisville Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, A Far Cry, Longleash and the Dublin Guitar Quartet. Recent works include the soundtrack The Doctor From India (2018), The Blue Hour (with Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Sarah Kirkland Snyder and Angelica Negron, commissioned by A Far Cry, 2018), Through the Sparkle (with astrïd on Gizeh Records 2017), The Clearing (Temporary Residence, 2015), Book of Leaves, Marion County 1938, If Then Not When with King’s Daughters & Sons (Chemikal Underground), and numerous albums with ground-breaking indie chamber group Rachel’s (Quarterstick/Touch and Go). ---rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

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1 	The Air 	1:33
2 	The Clearing 	7:55
3 	The Air of Place 	1:03
4 	The Herald 	4:29
5 	The Air in Time 	1:27
6 	In the Vapor with the Air Underneath 	4:44
7 	Transverse Plane Vertical 	2:51
8 	Transverse Plane Horizontal 	3:10
9 	The Air, Her Heart 	1:56
10 	Further Foundation 	6:16
11 	The Air at Night 	7:01
12 	And Today Was Her Birthday 	6:19

Bass – Aaron May
Cello – Helen Money, Wendy Doyle, Örs Köszeghy
Harp – Lisa Spurlock Gilmore
Oboe – Jennifer Potochnic
Percussion – Kyle Crabtree
Piano – Rachel Grimes
Saxophone, Clarinet – Jacob Duncan
Viola – Christian Frederickson, David Marks, Melinda Odle
Violin – Adriane Tilanus, Jane Halliday, Scott Moore
Written-By – Rachel Grimes 

Rachel Grimes is a pianist, composer, and arranger based in Kentucky - most renowned for her work in Rachel's, the groundbreaking chamber-rock ensemble that introduced an entire generation of underground rock fans to the unexpected similarities and appeal of neoclassical music. Grimes has toured the world as a solo pianist, and as a collaborator with chamber ensembles such as Portland Cello Project, astrïd, Cicada, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta trio, and Orchestra Kandinskij. Unhurried, at times fleeting, and stretching into the sky, The Clearing is a winding path of transient moments exploring personal memory, relationships, and mystery from a deeply internal place. The music is a wide spectrum of textures in strings, harp, piano, woodwinds, and percussion. Featuring an ensemble that includes Scott Morgan (LOSCIL), Scott Moore, Kyle Crabtree (Shipping News), Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Jacob Duncan (Liberation Prophecy), and Helen Money, The Clearing reveals a broad new chapter for Rachel Grimes. ---rachelgrimes.bandcamp.com

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's The Clearing, collects 11 short pieces (one just over a minute, another eight times that length) that Grimes first 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 Clearing should 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 Grimes has 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. ---Mark Deming, AllMusic Review

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