Thijs Cuppen Trio – Homeground

Pianist Thijs Cuppen makes music that doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed. He belongs to no genre, does not want to be trendy, but reveals himself in his debut CD ‘Homeground’ as a poet-storyteller with feeling for drama and a pianistic idiom very much his own. Cuppen is known for his work in saxophone player Susanne Alt’s quartet, with whom he recorded three albums, performed several times at the North Sea jazz festival, but builds here a surprising and personal musical home with a remarkably precise and subtle trio.

His ten own compositions, which almost can be listened to as a joint ‘suite’, are beautifully contrasting, with haunting melody lines that resound in one’s ears. Sometimes with an impressionistic shade, always full of atmosphere. From the strong and tight opening movement of ‘Slumber mountain’ into the tenderness of ‘The Traveler’. From a melancholic ‘Homeground’- with bowed bass – via the frenetic dissonants of ‘Otherness’ into a poetry (‘Last blossom’) that never gets sentimental. Helped strongly by the naturalness and the original accompaniment of drummer Philippe Lemm and the right choices of bassplayer Cord Heineking in this tightly knit jazztrio.

All compositions written and arranged by Thijs Cuppen.