For those not yet in the know, “Julia Hulsmann’s compositions always have great respect for melody that lends depth and an enduring quality to her finest work, which with every addition to her ECM discography, keeps growing” - Jazzwise Magazine.

After the highly acclaimed run of quartet recordings from Not Far From Here (2019), The Next Door (2022) to Under The Surface (2025), German pianist Julia Hulsmann has decided to alter the narrative and up the ante with a newly formed octet of award-winning instrumentalists and vocalists.

On While I Was Away Julia combines the line-up of a classical trio (violin, cello, piano) with a common jazz piano trio and invites three singers to join in for a program of adventurous originals, an individual take on Ani DiFranco’s 1999 hit Up Up... and a breezy Brazilian tune by songwriter Zelia Fonsesca.

The music is often combined with lyrics of renown writes, for instance Emily Dickinson, Margaret Artwood and E.E. Cummings. A wide pallet of musical connotations unfolds, as Brazilian dance, musical-like storytelling, chamber music dynamics and passages of dense, free improvisation color a fluorescent picture of a fierce ensemble.

The musicians of Julia’s octet are: Eva Klesse, Eva Kruse, Susanne Paul, Heloise Lefebvre, Michael Schiefel, Aline Frazao and Live Maria Roggen.

1. Coisário De Imagens
2. Sleep
3. Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up
4. Felicia’s Song
5. You Come Back
6. Walkside
7. Hora Azul
8. TicToc
9. Iskele
10. Moonfish Dance

This masterfully sculpted new recording opens on the beautiful hipsway of Coisário De Imagens and the lushly sculpted Sleep, and then we get the intoxicating, veritably spoken word Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, a dulcet aching yearn that threads through Felicia’s Song and the furtively skittish You Come Back.

Along next is a languishing beauty found within Walkside and an impassioned, yet restrained Hora Azul and they are in turn follows that with a gently frenetic yet always astutely restrained overview within TicToc, the set rounding off on the soulful blues/jazz balladry of Iskele, coming to a close on the playfully flirtatious Moonfish Dance.

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