The music of Grenouille mixes the magical sounds of celestas, the beauty of violins, the tinkling of toy instruments. Also the elegance of grand pianos, the phantasmagoric howlings of musical saw, the french ambience of accordions and the vintage textures of mellotrons. all this elements weave around an intimate voice to become a whole halfway cinema soundtracks, singer songwriters and french chanson.
Grenouille starts as the solo project of Javier Afonso, born in Canary Islands in 1984. After he had spent half of his live playing in bands, he decided to record all the songs that he had accumulated throughout the years in a home studio. From the result of these recordings, he made a demo called "Shadows of the lagoon" and adopted the pseudonym "Grenouille", inspired by Patrick Suskind's "Perfume". Once the recording process was finished, he decided to move to London, with just a bag full of instruments. There he started to develop the project, playing with musicians from different countries and merging the music with his other artistic facets like video and photography. When he returned to Spain, he formed a new version of Grenouille, with Laura Escuela (piano, celesta and keyboards), Mónica Viñoly (violin, vocals), Juan Luis Pérez (drums and precussion), Teresa Díaz (cello) and himself (vocals, guitar, accordion, musical saw...) Lately, they've won important awards at Canary Islands (ULL rock and Capital Sonora) and they're recording their first album.
Some references:
Yann Tiersen, Nick Cave, Tom waits, Sigur Ros, Sufjan Stevens, la chanson francesa (Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf), Patrick Wolf, Jeff Buckley, Beirut, Radiohead, Matt Elliott, Devotchka, Philip Glass , Andrew bird, A hack and a hacksaw, Calexico, Nick Drake, Migala, Leonard Cohen, Danny Elfman, Arcade fire, Jon Brion, Rufus Wainwright, Nino Rota
Javier Afonso (Vocals, guitar, accordion, musical saw…)
Laura Escuela (Piano, celesta, toy piano, backing vocals and other keyboards)
Mónica Viñoly (Violin, backing vocals)
Juan Luis Pérez (Drums, percussion and backing vocals)
Teresa Díaz Llarena (Cello)
Teresa Díaz Llarena (Cello)
