Christoph Gallio "reads" Gertrude Stein

If music were a sport, this adventurous, fast-paced and not least verbally challenging album would break records. It contains no less than 69 tracks - with a punky total duration of 36 minutes and 24 seconds. The shortest contribution lasts 7 seconds, the longest an almost elephantine 1'41".

Well, the Baden composer and saxophonist Christoph Gallio has never taken the path of least resistance, which has led to many uplifting, surprising experiences in the works of the Day & Taxi ensemble, which has existed in various formations since 1988. Nothing changes here, and yet everything is different. For over thirty years, Gallio has been particularly interested in the works of Pennsylvania-born author and art collector Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), whose circle in Paris later included Picasso, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald and Matisse. Her literary work is characterized above all by the musical, often repetitive structure of her sentences, the meaning of which can rarely be encapsulated by the usual means of linguistic cognition. Exactly: "A rose is a rose is a rose."

Shortest poetry, shortest composition

With Yet Dish is a long, posthumously published series of short poems. There is not enough space here to explain Stein's theories on words and their meaning - or our idea of their meaning. Suffice it to say that these mini-poems certainly trigger completely different associations and trains of thought in every ear. For example XLII: "A jell (sic) cake/A jelly cake/A jelly cake." Or XLV: "Copying Copying it in."

From the first to the last note, Gallio has tailored a highly concentrated short composition to each one, independent in its construction and tonal quality (i.e. inspired by the words and at the same time lending them a new dimension), which feels the words to the teeth and makes the contours sound. He is helped in this by the French-Bernese singer Sonia Loenne, who quietly reminds us of Dagmar Krause, the double bassist Vito Cadonau and the drummer Flo Hufschmid. The overall effect of the crystal-clear, polished miniatures is a kaleidoscopic shimmer in which the words spread like honey in tea.

Christoph Gallio's Stone Is A Rose Is A Stone Is A Stone - Yet Dish, Gertrude Stein. Sonia Loenne, voice; Christoph Gallio, soprano & alto saxophone; Vito Cadonau, double bass; Flo Hufschmid, drums & percussion. Hat Hut Records