Poetzsch Plays Helbig

Musicians Clemens Christian Poetzsch and Sven Helbig had known each other for years. They met in 2008 at Dresden's conservatory, where Helbig taught drums and Poetzsch studied the piano. Soon enough they would be playing in the same Jazz trio, jamming to Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus every Sunday at the city's famous Blue Note Club. But following their years in Dresden, the two lost touch. For ten years both would go their separate ways pursuing their distinct musical identities; Helbig delving deeper into orchestra and genre blurring music and Poetzsch developing his solo piano work. That was until 2019, when Helbig decided to invite his old jazz mate onboard a special project, "For a very long time I thought about the right interpreter for my music, and with Clemens I found the ideal combination of technical skills, feel for sound and musical background," he explains, "We both share a passion for the extravaganzas of the piano gods, but also for the unique aesthetics that jazz pianists bring to the instrument, and we can also get lost in electronic music from the ambient and experimental world." All ten pieces for the album were selected by Helbig from his previous three albums. The German musician has become known for his sound which fuses elements of classical and electronic music. The selected pieces embody this versatility, some being written for a string quartet, others for the orchestra and some for the choir. Although the scores were written down, transposing such vastness into solo piano tunes meant that there was so much that Poetzsch could play with, "No one has the same pace, the same rhythm, the same sense for details and what you can do with them - in music as in life," says Clemens.