Artist: Julia Hulsmann Octet
Album: While I Was Away
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Label: ECM Records
Released: 2026
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. Coisario de Imagens (Tavares-Fonseca) - 5:56
02. Sleep (Dickinson-Hulsmann) - 5:07
03. Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up (DiFranco) - 4:58
04. Felicia's Song (Roggen) - 4:20
05. You Come Back (Atwood-Hulsmann) - 3:51
06. Walkside (Roggen-Hulsmann) - 4:56
07. Hora Azul (Frazao-Hulsmann) - 4:02
08. TicToc (Cummings-Hulsmann) - 4:57
09. Iskele (Schiefel) - 4:38
10. Moonfish Dance (Roggen) - 5:08
DOWNLOAD FROM FILECAT.NET >>>
Personnel:
Aline Frazao, Live Maria Roggen, Michael Schiefel - vocals
Heloise Lefebvre - violin
Susanne Paul - violoncello
Julia Hulsmann - piano
Eva Kruse - double bass
Eva Klesse - drums
Since the 2000s, German pianist and composer Julia Hülsmann has worked in duos, trios, and quartets. While I Was Away is her first octet recording, and her first vocal album since 2015's A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill and America, with Theo Bleckman. This group features three vocalists -- Eva Klesse, Eva Kruse, and Susanne Paul -- and violinist Héloïse Lefebvre, longtime friend and collaborator Michael Schiefel, Angolan singer/songwriter Aline Frazão, and Norwegian jazz singer Live Maria Roggen. They lead an instrumental ensemble that includes drummer Eva Klesse, bassist Eva Kruse, violinist Héloïse Lefebvre, and cellist Susanne Paul. Given the ensemble, Hülsmann gathered an eclectic collection of songs. She set poems by Margaret Atwood, e.e. cummings, and Emily Dickinson to music, and composed songs for the singers' lyrics. The album skillfully weaves together classically tinged art pop with chamber and cabaret music and post-bop.
The album opener is a reading of "Coisário de Imagens," written by the Brazilian songwriting team of Rosanna Tavares and Zélia Fonseca. Propelled by jaunty Baiã rhythms, Frazão delivers the words as her own. Introduced by bass, drums, and cello, violin doubles the harmonic dimension and Hülsmann adds a bumping solo, transforming the proceeding into modern jazz. "Sleep," sung by Frazão, employs excerpts from Dickinson's poem "Sleep Is Supposed to Be." Its flowing chamber jazz atmosphere underscores Kruse's labyrinthine bass solo, accompanied by drums and an ostinato-rich piano playing one of the best solos on the record. One of Hülsmann's trademarks is her penchant for covers; here, it's Ani DiFranco's "Up, Up, Up, Up, Up." Double bass, cello, and violin offer the vamp before Schiefel sings. While the original was lovely, poignant pop, here the band keep the melody while transforming it into jazz with focused group improvisation. "Felicia's Song" and the closing "Moonfish Dance" were composed by Roggen. Recommended to Hülsman by Anja Garbarek, the composer's melodies are rich in nuance, adding Scandinavian folk-pop to the interweaving musical idioms in the former, a theatrical ballad with plucked cello and bass, while the latter is a formidable take on jazz-inflected indie pop with violin and cello jointly spinning around the pianist. Atwood's "You Come Back" features the female vocalists harmonizing around Schiefel's dramatic, cabaret-esque narration as the band dives deep into free improv. The interplay between strings and bass is canny. The impressionistic ballad "Walkside," from her quartet repertoire, contains new lyrics by Roggen. The beautiful "Hora Azul," a gently dissonant ballad, is sung by Frazão with poetic conviction. Schiefel's nocturnal ballad "Iskele" is sweet and dreamy. The lyric paints over the string-driven melody as pianist, bassist, and drummer enhance the flow. Following a wonderful violin solo, the other vocalists join in, adding painterly accents and harmonies. While I Was Away is, by any measure, an achievement. Hülsmann's command of the group and its ranging musical idioms is not only masterful, it's tender, brave, and uncompromisingly creative.
Review by Thom Jurek