Shakkei (借景) means borrowed scenery Japanese and is the Japanese (and also the Chinese) principle of “incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden”. Shakkei is also the title of the fourth duo album by French sax player Alexandra Grimal and prolific Italian pianist-organist Giovanni Di Domenico who have been collaborating for over twenty years.
Foreign regions and ideas inspired Grimal and Di Domenico’s previous duos. Ghibli (Sans Bruit, 2011) referred to the Libyan Arabic name for hot desert wind (قبلي). Cherugi (Ayler, 2014) offered a series of pieces titled after the Zen Buddhist cryptic riddle, kōan. Di Domenico has been collaborating regularly with Japanese and Japan-based musicians, including Akira Sakata, Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O’Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, and Tetuzi Akiyama.
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