Pour Alto Seul is Johan Arrias’ first solo work. It came about as a result of a work period early 2018 and does not claim to provide a comprehensive picture of the artist, but is an exploration of more specific ideas. In eight tracks with strong musical identities Arrias explores the saxophone as a sole voice and sound source and, to some extent, his own identity.
The recordings create an atmosphere of being alone among ruins; a desolate environment, a harsh but promising and exiting place full of memories, darkness, obscurity and opportunities. If the approach to the work came from the interest in the saxophone in itself, resonance, sound, musical identity and expression, then the selection and post-processing turned out be more about Arrias’s personal identity and reflections on a varied background which consists of a grandfather from Surinam, who fled World War II, to unite with the grandmother from Pajala, in Jönköping.