Julia Hülsmann | "While I Was Away"

After an Acclaimed Run of Quartet Recordings for ECM, German Pianist Julia Hülsmann Returns With While I Was Away, Featuring a Newly Formed Octet of Instrumentalists and Vocalists

With Drummer Eva Klesse, Bassist Eva Kruse,

Cellist Susanne Paul, Violinist Héloïse Lefebvre, and

Vocalists Michael Schiefel, Aline Frazão and Live Maria Roggen

Available Tomorrow via ECM

“The result is a set of classically-inclined art pop, with memorable melodies, a whimsical attitude, and chamber music atmosphere, though the leader’s solos are always pure jazz. While I Was Away is an unexpected and delightful turn from an artist who’s always consistent in quality.” — The Big Takeover

After the acclaimed run of quartet recordings from Not Far From Here (2019), The Next Door (2022) to Under The Surface (2025), German pianist Julia Hülsmann has decided to alter the narrative and up the ante with a newly formed octet of instrumentalists and vocalists. On While I Was Away, Hülsmann combines the line-up of a classical trio (violin, cello, piano) with a common jazz piano trio and invites three singers to join in for a program of adventurous originals, an individual take on Ani DiFranco’s 1999 hit “Up Up…” and a breezy Brazilian tune by songwriters Zélia Fonsesca and Rosanna Tavares. The music is often combined with lyrics of renown writers, for instance Emily Dickinson, Margaret Atwood and E.E. Cummings. A wide pallet of musical connotations unfolds, as Brazilian dance, musical-like storytelling, chamber music dynamics and passages of dense, free improvisation color a fluorescent picture of a fierce ensemble. The musicians of Hülsmann’s octet are: Eva Klesse, Eva Kruse, Susanne Paul, Héloïse Lefebvre, Michael Schiefel, Aline Frazão and Live Maria Roggen.

“Coisário De Imagens,” opening the album, was written by the songwriter-team of Rosanna & Zélia who “were very important to me in the ’90s,” Hülsmann says. “Their albums were formative for me and my peers.” On the tune, Angolan singer Frazão takes the lead, delivering a powerful performance propelled by a swift Baião rhythm in the band’s foundation. Aline is also at the helm for Hülsmann’s own “Hora Azul”, to which the singer contributed the lyrics. “From the beginning,” Hülsmann says, “one of the central ideas of the project was to have everyone contribute their own character to the mix, and we have different cultural backgrounds that add much variety in this process. Frazão for instance has a very natural approach to songwriting in Portuguese. I was very moved by her adding her own lyrics to my piece.”

Norwegian singer Roggen adds her own Scandinavian background to the widely flung net of musical idioms. Her contributions “Felicia’s Song” and “Moonfish Dance” spin intriguing narratives around a highly interactive band sound, with the violin and cello spinning pirouettes around Hülsmann’s equally responsive keyboard work. Live, wo was originally recommended to Hülsmann by Anja Garbarek, also wrote the lyrics for Hülsmann’s “Walkside,” a composition pulled from her quartet repertory. “I love how this piece now bridges my quartet sound world with that of the octet.”

The three voices on the record are each equipped with distinct characteristics, connecting harmoniously in several instances across the record. On “Tic Toc” during the rhythmically dancing chorus – more a spoken word unison than a hymnal refrain –, before dispersing into different harmonies, while “You Come Back” increases the drama with the two female vocalists flexing their harmonies around Schiefel’s intense, music theatre-like narration. Schiefel is one ofHülsmann’s longest friends (they met in 1991 as students) and his rapport with her music is accordingly natural. His original “Iskele” is a dreamy ballad that conjures the nighttime with “shooting stars” before his singer colleagues enter for the coda.

On Hülsmann’s composition “Sleep,” Frazão sings excerpts from the Emily Dickinson poem “Sleep Is Supposed To Be,” words that juxtapose expectations of sleep and morning. Kruse’s double bass solo brings a soothing pause into the song, with the instrumental section taking over and Hülsmann sprinkling evocative lines into the spontaneous ensemble interplay. On “Up, Up…”, with Schiefel on lead vocals, instrumental passages grow out of the song-form seamlessly, giving drummer Klesse, bassist Kruse, the strings and Hülsmann space to unfold in brief improvisation.

Hülsmann and her octet will be presenting music off While I Was Away at concerts in Germany and Switzerland in March 2026.