State of Mind

State of Mind" is a bold undertaking, because on his second album after last year's debut "Time Suite", the quartet of the young Luxembourg guitarist Gilles Grethen linked up with eleven strings. "I wanted to have a larger line-up for the second album, although I first thought of a big band," Grethen admitted. "But I always had the sound of strings in my mind when composing, because I come from classical music and I exclusively played that as a child and adolescent. The sound didn't let go of me, and I thought I had to do something with it; I even had some good ideas right away." The combination of jazz and strings has a long tradition, and the album "Charlie Parker with Strings" is generally regarded as the beginning of this symbiosis. Grethen also has a preference for the silky sounds. "When all the strings play together beautifully, they act like one big instrument," he said. "This great sound that can come from it fascinates me.