Dominique Grimaud - Les Quatres Directions

Dominique Grimaud is a hidden treasure of france's psych, free rock, electronic & jazz improv scenes. As a founding member of the legendary psych / krautrock inspired french act Camizole (1970 - 1978) to his equally celebrated no wave / new wave duo Video-Aventures (1978-) whose groundbreaking music has been viewed as a precursor to the sound of Stereolab, and in more recent times, jawdropping audio visual performance installations & live performances with celebrated performer Colleen , Grimaud has spent his entire life exploring the musical fringes of the French underground. With Les Quatres Directions, Grimaud reemerges with his first release in nearly a decade and it's a whirlwind mind altering long form microgroove composition of grand proportions that hearkens back to the expanded audio visoneering & spiritualism of 60s electronic music luminaries from Stockhausen to Ramon Sender. On Directions, Grimaud combines the other worldly synth effects of his moog, EMS Synthi AKS & Sequential Circuit Prophet and the hairy electric guitar bravado of his Fender strat with shamanic chanting, commune improv sessions with fellow travelers with odd acoustic instrumentation into a celestial homemade orchestra. Les Quatres Directions pays homage to the culture of the American Indians of the Great Plains, to their rituals & their paintings. This culture is deeply rooted in the themes of the circle and the cardinal points that they call the four winds. The whole piece evokes the outside world with the Four Elements : water, air, earth, fire and at the same time our inner world : heart, mind, body and spirit. Grimaud views Les Quatre Directions as four different paths in a person's life with his contradictions, his period of stagnation, and his return.

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