Corin Curschellas first launched Romansh poetry onto the world stage in 1996
as "Voices of Rumantsch", establishing herself in the modern ambience. "Valdun" represented
a fixed point within her varied creative output. Musicians from the Big Apple,
Brazil and the European metropolises of Paris, London created a global playground
for the Romansh verse.
After twelve years, Corin now returns to this fixed point, under changed augurs.
On "Grischunit" she focuses on five fellow musicians, creating a unified
band sound. The essence of her songs can as such be more easily grasped. "As
before, I thought, what do my Romanic poet friends tell me?", explains Curschellas. "I
didn't give them a unified theme apart from the fact that I wanted the verse
to be deep and calm, no hectic elements. The album was supposed to be like a
wide river, a flow that is well-established".
The call of the river has been followed by many: the famous Linard Bardill, who
enriched both Swiss-German and Rhaeto-Romanic musical heritage and bard and author
of children's songs to orchestral works. The poetry and short story specialist
Fabiola Carigiet, and Thomas Cathomen from Grisons ( Chantun Grischun), raised
in Mexico-City and Breil, Switzerland. The canon of Grischunit's authors includes
various generations: the deceased padre Alexander Lozza and the up-and-coming
author Arno Camenisch. And naturally, the proved talents of accompanist Benedetto
Vigne were at Corin Curschellas' side providing texts and co-composing music.
Lyrics were written in the three Romansh idioms: Sursilvan, Surmiran and Vallader
as well as the recently established artificial main language : Rumantsch Grischun.
According to Curschellas, "I'm not the voice of any one valley and their
idiom. I want my voice to belong to everyone!" With rudimentary sounds from
piano, ukulele and dulcimer, the songs began their journey across the Atlantic
in order that Swiss-American keyboardist and producer Peter Scherer create their
appropriate soundscapes. After he had prepared the sounds, they met for recordings
in Brooklyn. For Corin Curschellas "it was like being in the eye of the
storm. Around us, there was this hurricane, this buzz, the pulse of New York
which races at a high frequency by day and night. And we were in there, completely
slowed down. But just this created a special energy: on the one hand me, whose
tendency to avoid cities is increasing with age, on the other hand the people
from New York with their tangible urban background which brings with it a passion
and an artistry which leads them to play 100% accurately."
Grischunit
