The label, created in partnership with his partner, photographer and visual artist Genevieve Monro, will make its debut with its first two releases on October 22, 2021
Inaugural releases include a new solo album for classical guitar and oud along with
the studio debut of the quartet Square Peg with Mat Maneri, Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Christian Lillinger
In early 2022, Attaboygirl will release the new album by Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram with special guest Marc Ribot, while Astral Spirits will unveil the second album by the Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black
“Gordon Grdina Makes Music that is Important for Humanity.”
— Eyal Hareuveni, The Free Jazz Collective
“(Nomad) presents the restless spirit of jazz that refuses to be still, searching for a home
and never settling down…”
— Jon Davis, EXPOSE
“The prevailing ambience is one of dark mystery, but the ruggedness of Grdina’s tone makes for a palette of rich contrast.”
— David R. Adler, JazzTimes (review of Think Like the Waves)
The prolific Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, improviser, and master oud player Gordon Grdina has longbeen tireless in his pursuit of new possibilities and partnerships for his expansive musical imagination. Seeking a new outlet that can keep pace with his ever-expanding roster of ongoing projects and new collaborations, Grdina has announced the launch of Attaboygirl Records. The endeavor is being undertaken in collaboration with his partner, photographer Genevieve Monro, who will curate the distinctive visual style of the label. At the outset Attaboygirl will begin strictly as an imprint for Grdina’s own efforts, though the founders have plans to eventuallyexpand to include other artists as well.
Attaboygirl Records will make its official debut on October 22, 2021, with the simultaneous release of the first two entries in its catalogue. Pendulum is Grdina’s third solo album and the second composed for classical guitar and oud. Klotski, meanwhile, marks the studio debut of Gordon Grdina’s Square Peg, an exploratory quartet featuring Grdina on guitar and oud, Mat Maneri on viola, Shahzad Ismaily on bass and Moog, and Christian Lillinger on drums.
A third new release will follow in January 2022, with the meeting of guitar innovator Marc Ribot with Grdina’s Arabic music ensemble Haram. Grdina will also continue to record for other labels in the new year; in May 2022 the much anticipated second outing by Grdina’s explosive Nomad Trio with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black will be released via Astral Spirits.
“I seem to be putting out more music than other labels can handle,” jokes Grdina about the new effort. “The labelis a project that Genevieve and I have wanted to take on for a while now. It allows us to release projects when we want and to create a cohesive visual style for these disparate releases.”
The label’s name stems from a favorite saying of Monro’s late father, serving as a personal dedication while alluding to the two partners at the helm. “It's also a positive, encouraging sentiment,” Grdina adds, “which is important when taking on something new like this.”
Pendulum builds upon the success of Grdina’s previous solo releases. The first, 2018’s China Cloud, featured his usual arsenal – electric guitar and oud – won a Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammy) for Instrumental Album of the Year. His Juno-nominated 2020 follow-up, Prior Street, shifted into more of a chamber-jazz concentration with pieces designed for classical guitar and oud. The new album continues in that vein, intricately exploring the harmonic possibilities of the instruments in ways that bridge their Western and Arabic origins.
Square Peg brings Grdina together with Ismaily and Maneri, both longtime members of New York’s downtown scene, and German drummer Christian Lillinger, an award winning player in the European avant- jazz and improvised music world. For Klotski, Grdina penned a number of short, modular compositions that could fit together like puzzle pieces to form a free-ranging but focused setlist. The album’s single, nearly hour-long piece moves through eight of these cellular pieces, each able to be initiated by any member of the group and bridged by captivating improvisations, vividly blurring the lines between the written and the spontaneous.
Grdina founded Haram in 2008 with two purposes in mind: to further evolve his work with traditional Iraqi and Arabic folk music, and to convene several of his favorite Vancouver improvisers into one large ensemble. The follow-up to the ensemble’s 2012 debut, Her Eyes Illuminate, features the addition of legendary guitar wizard Marc Ribot, whose fabled career has included influential work with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant and John Zorn among countless others, as well as his own projects like Ceramic Dog, Los Cubanos Postizos, Spiritual Unity and the Rootless Cosmopolitans.
“Ribot's been a hero of mine for a long time,” Grdina says. “He added a whole lot of energy and excitement as well as a punk rock aesthetic to these pieces.”
Finally, next May will bring the release of Boiling Point, the second outing for Grdina’s Nomad Trio with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black, two of the most inventive and technically audacious artists in modern jazz. “I can write anything for this band,” Grdina touts. “It's very complex music, rhythmically, harmonically, melodically, and in the way every piece fits together, those guys really can do anything. Since the last album, the group has solidified its unique sound, which is exciting to hear develop on this second record.”
