Hans Lüdemann – piano & virtual piano
German Jazz pianist, composer and improviser Hans Lüdemann is known as „one of the most original and expressive European pianists“ (Jazz Podium) or simply „one of the great pianists of German Jazz“ (Frankfurter Rundschau). He loves to take the listener on adventurous musical journeys as on his last CD „African Variations“, a program that he presented live on many festivals and concert stages. On the new release „Between the keys“ he is opening fascinating spaces, expanding the piano into a microtonal and multitimbral instrument by the means of electronic pianosamples. The boundaries of the instrument are taken off - the „music between the keys“ and the „sound beyond the notes“ become audible. The emotional content of the music is even more present. Impressions from African travels leave their traces in energetic rhythms, dreamlike passages of introspection are beautiful and abysmal at the same time. The acoustic piano sound is illuminated by the virtual background. It is piano music full of suspense and variety crossing borders to discover different territories.
Hans Lüdemann expands the grand piano with sampled Steinway sounds into an instrument that is capable of producing quartertones, filterings and modulations in the sense of broadening the possibilites of expression and of taking the cobwebs off an instrument heavily loaded with musical history. The expressivity and the depth of the piano sound are maintained and stay in the focus ofthe music. „Between the keys“ is a joyful play between tradition and modernity, vision and experiment - as in the piece „Schwarz in Weiss“ (Black in White), where the borders between the black and white keys on the piano seem to dissolve, or in „Perturbé“, where the piano sound is distorted to an extent almost past recognition.
Hans Lüdemann has performed solo piano concerts at the Musiktriennale Köln, HIFA Festival Harare,
at the piano festival of Prague Philharmonic, „Vues d‘Afrique“ in Montreal, „Jazz across the border“
Berlin, Villa Massimo Rome, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Gasteig München and many other festivals and concert stages. Solo tours have led to the US, Canada, Africa and Europe.
Hans Lüdemann is a Steinway artist and uses Native Instruments Akoustik piano and Kontakt sampler.
The CD was released in spring of 2009 with a series of concerts in Europe and the US.
„Between the keys“ was commissioned by the Kunststiftung NRW.
Since 1994, Hans Lüdemann has presented a number of different solo
programs. In "the natural piano"
he incorporated traces of African music, in 1998 he presented a
program with the music of
Thelonious Monk, in 2003 the "African Variations". For special
occasions he has combined his
own compositions with new music (Feldman, Berio, Ligeti) or Bach. A
specialty is the Clavichord,
which he plays with new techniques and that he often uses in his solo
concerts.
He has performed together with well-known colleagues such as Joachim
Kühn, Jasper van't Hof,
Geri Allen, Vladislav Sendecki and Ramon Vallé.
CDs
Hans Lüdemann The natural piano 1995 JazzHausMusik
Hans Lüdemann African Variations 2004 RISM/Alive
Hans Lüdemann Between the keys 2009 RISM/Alive listen