Kriss Valentin: a musical comic strip, a transversal project

The Project

In this book, nine stories illustrate the thoughts of Kriss Valentin, a (fictional) saxophonist in search of beauty and truth. Through his artistic and philosophical eyes, he offers us a singular rereading of ordinary situations. The album evokes moments of inspiration, reflection and poetry, but above all, universal questions. Each story results in an original composition written by the main character of the comic book, which can be found on the CD inside.

Six cartoonists from the Bordeaux region participated in the project: Marion Rigal, Fabien Doulut, Sébastien Chevalier, Claude Cachin, Fabrice Tribes and Julien Mariolle. Their very different styles and universes give changing features to the main character and create different atmospheres, resulting in a formidable graphic achievement.

Musically, there is a diversity of styles (jazz, blues, impressionist music…) and instrumental configurations. Giordano Muto (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones) is surrounded by Pierre Cherbero (piano, moog), Ludovic Guichard (guitars), Ziad Ben Youssef (oud, percussion), Damien Bachère (tuba) and José Vicente da Silva (drums, vibraphone) for this project.

“When you buy this comic strip, you are potentially buying a cross-disciplinary event: a concert with real musicians, an exhibition with the drawings of the artists, a pedagogical opening with apprentice musicians and the possibility of the project manager's intervention in artistic education institutes.”

Twenty or so prints were extracted from the boards to be exhibited. This project also gave rise to a one and a half hour musical show in which a storyteller, Ana Maria Venegas, joins the musicians on stage.

This cross-disciplinary creation aims to democratise access to culture by reaching a wide audience, not only in music and art schools, but also in media libraries and festivals!

The author

Giordano Muto studied saxophone at the Zurich Conservatory of Music with Jean-Georges Koerper and was awarded the diplomas of professor and concert performer with distinction. He subsequently perfected his skills with Claude Delangle and Arno Bornkamp, among others.

He has been a saxophone teacher for more than 20 years and is also an orchestral musician with the Orchestra Fiati Svizzera Italiana, Symphonisches Blasorchester Schweizer Armeespiel, and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine (ONBA). He also plays with several ensembles: Belli in zona, Riflessi d'epoca, Ensemble Laboratorium, Ensemble de cuivres Jurassien, Saxtape, Krazolta…

Now based in Bordeaux, he creates his artistic projects as a freelance. He is notably co-author of a musical tale extracted from the novel Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, and creator of the educational collection Dérives (2015).

► Order the musical comic strip 'Kriss Valentin'
► See extracts on the author's website