Gilles Grethen Quartet & Strings - 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.