Julia Hülsmann Quartet - The Next Door

2022 CD release.

“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.