Christoph Gallio: Stone Is A Rose Is A Stone Is A Stone

Anyone approaching this album unawares needs to be warned that its playing time of 36' 34" is divided into sixty nine tracks ranging in length from six seconds to a minute and 41 seconds, and that the tracks are labelled as Roman numerals from one to 69 with 10 of the track titles being extended by dedications to unidentified individuals (for example, "XXXIV to Sisa Wandeler"). For anyone keen to know more, the track titles are printed on the rear sleeve. Given the album's release day, this is not an elaborate joke...

The clue to this mystery is in big blue letters on the front of this album sleeve—"Yet Dish" "Gertrude Stein." Born in Pennsylvania in 1874, Gertrude Stein was a renowned American novelist, poet and playwright who moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home until her death in 1946. While in {jny: Paris}} she hosted a salon where leading figures of art and literature, such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, would meet. "Yet Dish" is the title of one of Stein's poems, which was unpublished during her lifetime; it has 69 verses. A copy of that poem in its entirety is included with this album. One of Stein's often repeated quotes, "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" is very similar to this album's title, "Stone Is A Rose Is A Stone Is a Stone."

The Swiss saxophonist, improviser and composer Christoph Gallio was apparently attracted to Stein's writing by her "sound poetry" in which the musical qualities of language are more important than their meaning; examples of this are her use of "new sense" instead of "nuisance," "sew up" instead of "soap" and "won door" instead of "wonder." This album presents Stein's poetry set to Gallio's music of unique and rare beauty. In 2010 and later through the period of covid isolation, Gallio worked on setting "Yet Dish" to music. He assembled a new ensemble primarily to perform his intricate score; it comprised Gallio himself on soprano and alto saxophones, Sonia Loenne's voice, Vito Cadonau on double bass and Flo Hufschmid on drums and percussion. The album was recorded on 12th and 13th May 2022 at Hardstudios in Winterthur. It is a measure of this quartet's success that they can make tracks lasting a few seconds sound beguiling again and again. Dating back to Stein herself and including everyone mentioned here, this album is a collective triumph for all concerned.