Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Julia Hülsmann Quartet - In Full View (ECM 2013)

Julia Hülsmann piano
Tom Arthurs trumpet, flugelhorn
Marc Muellbauer double bass
Heinrich Köbberling drums


erman pianist Julia Hülsmann gave – for my taste – the best performance of her already enormously varied career. In trumpet player Tom Arthurs she has found a wonderful counterpart for her poetic ingenuity.
Ulrich Olshausen, reviewing the Julia Hülsmann Quartet at the Münster Festival

After two acclaimed trio albums pianist Julia Hülsmann proposes a different project for her third ECM release “In Full View”, motivated initially by a performance by Berlin-based, English trumpet player Tom Arthurs: “I found the music so beautiful that I asked him on the spot to collaborate...” After first rehearsals had established musical compatibility, Hülsmann called upon the services of her trusted rhythm section of Marc Muellbauer (double bass) and Heinrich Köbberling, but a vocalist was no longer needed. Thus the Julia Hülmann Trio became the Julia Hülsmann Quartet – with a prominent role for Tom Arthurs as strong new frontline voice that not only inspires Julia Hülsmann as player and arranger, but also had a stimulating effect on the composing activities within the quartet, with all members bringing compositions to the table. The programme is rounded off by the additions of “The Water” from Canadian singer-songwriter Feist, “Richtung Osten”, penned by Heinrich Köbberlings wife Fumi Udo, and Manuel de Falla’s “Nana” from the “Siete Canciones Populares Españolas” cycle of folk song arrangements.

ecm