The Next Door Julia Hülsmann Quartet

• 1Empty Hands05:57
• 2Made Of Wood06:17
• 3Polychrome04:12
• 4Wasp At The Window08:07
• 5Jetzt Noch Nicht01:47
• 6Lightcap04:01
• 7Sometimes It Snows In April03:59
• 8Open Up04:32
• 9Jetzt Noch Nicht (Var.)04:16
• 10Post Post Post05:49
• 11Fluid06:27
• 12Valdemossa04:41
• Total Runtime01:00:05

Info for The Next Door

On The Next Door Julia Hülsmann returns with the quartet from 2019’s Not Far From Here, and presents her unique pianistic voice in a varied programme of almost exclusively original music, composed by herself and her colleagues – tenor saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, Marc Muellbauer on double bass and drummer Heinrich Köbberling. A deep respect for the jazz tradition, as cultivated in the post-bop and modal jazz of the 60s, permeates this session and, with the quartet’s modern twist, sets the stage for highly expressive soloing and profound interplay.

Our various responsibilities within the quartet are more open and free than in the trio. Even though there’s an additional player, assigning stricter roles isn’t necessary. There’s plenty of room for me to move around on piano, manoeuvre from contributing unison lines to melodic accompaniment, then switch to playing basslines – all seamlessly, because we are always listening to each other. That’s our first and foremost priority” – Julia Hülsmann

The follow-up to 2019’s Not Far From Here sees Julia Hülsmann reconvening with the same line-up as last time, in Studios La Buissonne, and entering into intense interplay with a band that has been extensively worked-in on the road. The Guardian called the quartet’s debut “a standout, for understated reinvention of the familiar and cool virtuosity” and spoke of “clever, thoughtful, inquisitively contemporary jazzmaking”. These virtues have been further refined and new idioms added to the blend on the quartet’s second stance, with each member – tenor saxophonist Uli Kempendorff, Heinrich Köbberling on drums, Marc Muellbauer on bass and Julia – contributing original material to The Next Door.

“Since the last album we’ve been on the road a whole lot”, Julia notes. “We’ve had time to further develop our rapport as a quartet and, as a result, our interplay has become even more intuitive.” Even when most live-activity was intermittently shut down, Julia and her quartet participated in alternative performance projects and spent many weeks vigorously rehearsing new material. The fruit of their labour, presented on this album, is as multi-facetted as it is uncompromising, with a strong emphasis on an intimate ensemble sound. Flashes of jazz’ tradition, somewhere between 60s modal customs and post-bop swing, pull through The Next Door like a guiding light, but it’s how the group subsequently transforms these notions and makes them their own that stands out.

“Empty Hands”, the album’s pensive opener, is a blank canvas, gradually filled in with tender key strokes, searching melodies and delicate accompaniment. As Julia, who wrote the song, explains: “When your hands are full, you have to juggle everything back and forth, you’ve too much to deal with simultaneously. Empty hands, on the other hand, are like a clean slate – you have all the possibilities in the world to do what you please”. “Made of Wood” contrasts this impressionist design with an earthy tone, set in a modal frame and propelled forward by straight-ahead swing: “Time and again I feel like writing something solid, conciliatory in a way. This piece refers to my inner foundation, which I associate with something made of wood, something comforting.”

The pianist’s brief duo exposition in exchange with saxophonist Uli Kempendorff on “Jetzt Noch Nicht” – later reprised as a variation with all members of the group – is a moody theme with a twisty melody, inviting the players’ most expressive playing. On Julia’s “Fluid” the band presents a tight, spirited unit in a mesmerizing performance of a smooth, steadily crescendoing arc: “This piece is based around the thick, layered piano sound that’s introduced after a couple of bars. Melodies can crystallize over this fluid tapestry and flow on in waves. Water is an important element to me, which frequently appears in my images.”

Uli’s warm tone complements Julia’s trio with exceptional warmth, entering into a natural symbiosis with the piano’s subtle action, and his own piece, “Open Up”, is among the set’s highlights: “When writing ‘Open Up’ I was exclusively focused on the melody’s forward-motion. The line dancingly weaves its way through three octaves. The bass part is notated and creates a counterpoint, while piano and drums are free to interject, comment and mingle at will. There’s much room for free interpretation and alteration throughout.”

Marc Muellbauer’s compositional contributions go through various pulsations – “Polychrome” being a rubato exercise built around a, mostly, diatonic melody that wants to escape its tonal framework. “Wasp at the Window” on the other hand finds the group conspiring in an extensive workout in nine-time with an ostinato bending and bulging to the quartet’s beat. Again different by design, Marc wrote the bossa nova “Valdemossa” with composer Frédéric Chopin in mind: “It is based on the harmony of Chopin’s well-known Prelude No.4 in E Minor, from his cycle of 24 Preludes, op.28. I wrote a new melody expanding the harmony’s chromatic suggestions and exploiting its ambiguity in modulating into two other, far removed keys. It is named after the beautiful place in Mallorca where Chopin wrote his piece…”

With a playful and slightly deconstructed inclination, drummer Heinrich Köbberling’s first original in the programme, “Lightcap”, initially suggests the sketch-like framework of a Paul Motian tune. Actually, the piece is inspired by Köbberling’s early trio endeavours in the 90s with saxophonist Lisa Parrott and bassist Chris Lightcap, giving the song its name. The drummer’s other composition is “Post Post Post” – a subtle group improvisation with a veiled melody that has occupied the drummer for several years.

It has become customary for Julia’s records to highlight revamps of known songs from the pop world and with Prince’s “Sometimes it Snows in April” the quartet uncovers another neat treat. The piece’s catchy melody, immediate harmonic hook and laid-back groove are thoughtfully explored by the entire band, with Julia’s gentle touch at the centre of attention.

The Next Door, recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in March 2022, is issued as the quartet embarks on a European tour, with concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Norway.

Julia Hülsmann, piano
Uli Kempendorff, tenor saxophone
Marc Muellbauer, double bass
Heinrich Köbberling, drums

Julia Hülsmann
was born in Bonn in 1968. She took classical piano lessons from the age of eleven and started her first band at 16. In 1991, she moved to Berlin to study jazz piano at the University of the Arts (HdK) and the following year joined the German Youth Jazz Orchestra (BuJazzO). Since 1997, Hülsmann has worked with her own trio, playing at clubs and festivals all over Germany.

Julia Hülsmann’s ECM debut The End of a Summer came in 2008, with regular partners Marc Muellbauer (bass) and Heinrich Köbberling (drums), followed by Imprint, in 2011. In 2012, the trio became a quartet with the addition of English trumpet and flugelhorn player Tom Arthurs, a line-up which released In Full View, in 2013. Arthurs brought a strong new frontline voice that not only inspired Julia Hülsmann as player and arranger, but also had a stimulating effect on the composing activities within the quartet.

Singer Theo Bleckmann added his considerable vocal gifts to the quartet on A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill and America (2015), an imaginative response to the composer’s songs that had its origins in the 2013 Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau. John Fordham wrote in the Guardian: “This might just be one of the great jazz treatments of the songs of Kurt Weill […] Not a sound is out of place on this beautifully crafted project.”

Heinrich Köbberling
comes up with pieces that could hardly be more different. The enchanting "If I Had A Heart" begins almost like a Ben Webster ballad before its theme gives way to a feature for bassist Marc Muellbauer, who plays solo in the song's structure. "Colibri", on the other hand, could be described as "a typical drummer's piece", as Julia notes, which is based on a "rhythmic idea, but then goes in a completely different direction with the swing part in the middle. We haven't had that element on any of our previous group albums, although we've all played jazz with that feel."

Marc Muellbauer
is the writer of "Mistral" and "Wrong Song" the two longest tracks on the album. "'Mistral' is a very important piece for us," Julia explains. "It's a great example of how a technical idea can develop into something that feels very loose and open. We worked on that for a long time. Initially we had called the number 'Thirty-Five' because Marc is playing around with multiples of 5 and 7 here. But from this rhythmic idea it developed into something else that gives us more freedom. We can move around within this piece and it's different every time we play it. I love that aspect."

Uli Kempendorff
compositional contributions are the terse "You Don't Have To Win Me Over", which only briefly states its message, and the more enigmatic piece "Einschub", which resists prompt categorisation. "When he introduced it at the first rehearsal, I wasn't sure what it was," Julia says. "Uli has something in his pieces, in his handling of harmonies and melodies, that we - Marc, Henrich and I - don't have. With 'Einschub', I think it's about the independence of the lines and the rhythms, which become quite complex towards the end because of the way they overlap."

Booklet for The Next Door