JULIA HÜLSMANN SOLO
Grand Female Piano. Radical because it is unpretentious, impressive because it is without affectation, lyrical because it is without allure. Every note has its purpose; the playing is reverently effortless, engagingly melodic, and casually virtuosic. A three-hundred-kilo grand piano feels weightless.
“She has been called the ‘Lyricist of Jazz’ by DIE ZEIT, and Jazzpodium has similarly characterized her work: ‘Pianist Julia Hülsmann achieves the feat of intelligently combining beauty and simplicity with a sense of timbre and nuance. She is not concerned with dazzling technique and speed; rather, she convinces through beautiful sound expression and subtle differences. Even in more groove-oriented pieces, one feels more reminded of relaxed hovering than grounded movement.’
Peter Rüedi perceives her playing like this: ‘Julia Hülsmann is a lyricist as both pianist and composer. She seeks a concise form with a long resonance, not grand narrative gestures. In doing so, she avoids any kind of depth vertigo. She is by no means deterred by pop songs… It sounds as if invented by her – and her originals sound like standards. Breath, space, and restraint are indeed keywords for her music … Hülsmann does not allow emotions to cloud her judgment, but she does allow them in, so to speak, as a corrective to her tendency towards transparent constructivism. Emotions, sometimes tinged with melancholy, but not sentimentality.’
In her solo program, Julia Hülsmann demonstrates how diverse jazz can be – with her own compositions, jazz standards, and free improvisations, as well as songs by Radiohead or Feist, she leaves pointed impressions that linger in the air for a long time.“
“She has been called the ‘Lyricist of Jazz’ by DIE ZEIT, and Jazzpodium has similarly characterized her work: ‘Pianist Julia Hülsmann achieves the feat of intelligently combining beauty and simplicity with a sense of timbre and nuance. She is not concerned with dazzling technique and speed; rather, she convinces through beautiful sound expression and subtle differences. Even in more groove-oriented pieces, one feels more reminded of relaxed hovering than grounded movement.’
— Die Zeit