A clear midnight - Edition sous fourreau en tirage limité

Description

Pianist Julia Hülsmann and singer Theo Bleckmann celebrate Kurt Weill’s most intimate body of work. In their first long-awaited recording collaboration, pianist Julia Hülsmann and singer Theo Bleckmann celebrate more popular songs by the master such as Mack the Knife, Speak Low and September Song, adding Hülsmann compositions set to texts by Walt Whitmann, a poet admired by Kurt Weill. The project was initiated at the request of the Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau in 2013, and was refined in the studio during this recording in Oslo in June 2014 under the direction of Manfred Eicher. It marks a musical step forward for Hülsmann’s group on several levels, opening up new imaginative possibilities for the performers. English trumpeter and flugelhorn player Tom Arthurs, who made his debut with Hülsmann on the album In Full View, is an integral part of the group on A Clear Midnight. His trumpet doubles or supports Bleckmann’s voice, giving the singing a new color. As for Theo Bleckmann, the sensitive vocalist makes his debut here as a jazz singer on ECM, although he has recorded twice for the label as a member of the Meredith Monk ensemble on Mercy and Impermanecene.