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."