German pianist Julia Hülsmann has making a series of strong trio and quartet albums for ECM Records for almost twenty years. While I Was Away is the first vocal record she’s made since 2014’s A Clear Midnight: Kurt Weill in America, which guest-starred elastic-voiced songwriter/interpreter Theo Bleckmann. For her thirteenth album, Hülsmann assembles a new group that includes drummer Eva Klesse, bassist Eva Kruse, violinist Héloïse Lefebvre, cellist Susanne Paul, and, crucially, a trio of singers: Aline Frazão, Live Maria Roggen, and Michael Schiefel. For such an unusual lineup, the bandleader gathers an eclectic batch of songs for them to perform. Hülsmann sets poems by Emily Dickinson (“Sleep”), e.e. cummings (“TicToc”), and Margaret Atwood (“You Come Back”) to music, covers Ani Difranco (“Up, Up, Up, Up, Up”) and Brazilian songwriter Zélía Fonseca (“Coisário De Imagens”), and collaborates with her vocalists on their own pieces. The result is a set of classically-inclined art pop, with memorable melodies, a whimsical attitude, and chamber music atmosphere, though the leader’s solos are always pure jazz. While I Was Away is an unexpected and delightful turn from an artist who’s always consistent in quality.
