Facebook friends of Grimm Audio and people who spotted our advertisements will not have missed the remarkable ‘magical’ photography that we use for some time now. Soon we will dedicate a blog to a ‘behind the scenes’ story of the epic photo shoot of these pictures. But first we wanted to put a spot light on the young female model that shines in many of these pictures. She is called Maya Fridman and we love the fact that she is not a professional model but a professional cellist. Maya is a rising star in The Netherlands, where she lives after moving from Moscow for her conservatory studies. From 2013 on she won numerous awards, and in 2019 she even won the coveted Dutch Classical Talent Award.
Maya’s albums are recorded by Brendon Heinst, driving force behind the TRPTK label and also the photographer of our ‘Magic’ series of pictures. Brendon strives to make the purest possible recordings, combining a high end audio attitude with an adventurous musical taste. TRPTK has a reputation for offering a remarkable podium to a new generation of composers and musicians and Grimm Audio follows them with great interest.
Maya’s latest album is called Reið and it really enchanted us. It offers a fascinating mix of electronic landscapes with solo cello that explore the boundaries of classical and pop music, ensuing in an intriguing piece by John Tavener for solo cello accompanied by six more cellos. And finally as catharsis, a magnificent interpretation of Lou Reed’s Heroin, in which Maya both plays cello and sings.
Accidentaly, the music on this late 2019 album resonates perfectly with the current atmosphere of ‘fear for an uncertain future’ due to the Corona virus crisis. Maya wrote in the liner notes: “As much as I try to find the right words to describe the intention behind this album, I repeatedly come to a dead end. It is as if I go for a walk in a deep forest: one part of me wants to get lost in the unknown territory, while the other lingers on the familiar. By trying to make meaning of the world around me, I search for compositions that reflect something eternal, irresistible to change and corruption. Reið means this journey, and the feeling that one world dies somewhere, and a new one emerges with every blink of my eyes.”
We are delighted to offer all readers of this blog a 30% discount on a download or CD purchase of the Reið album in May. Just use the coupon code “GRIMM30” when checking out at TRPTK’s webshop. The DXD format download is highly recommended.
