Julie Sassoon
Piano, Composer
British pianist and composer Julie Sassoon’s album on Berlin’s Jazzwerkstatt Label is a live solo piano CD titled ‘Land of Shadows’. The music unfolds her German-Jewish identity. A theme that has taken a prominent place in her work since her move from London to Berlin in 2009. Julie has previously given concerts in the ‘Pianolab’ in the Goethe-Institut Amsterdam.
RBB Kulturradio recorded and broadcast her concert in Berlin’s Great Synagogue. This was part of Julie’s Germany tour in spring 2012. Concerts at the Bauhaus, Dessau and at the Loft in Cologne are also part of the CD. The result is a very deep and unique album.
The solo concert she gave with the Enrico Pieranunzi Trio at the ‘London Jazz Festival’ was a great success … ‘The Guardian’ considers it one of the ‘top ten highlights of the festival’.
“… An unclassifiable venture… Julie consistently makes the piano, her voice and her deepest emotions sound awesomely and naturally inseparable.”
John Fordham – The Guardian
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“… The sounds rise up from silence, from a far away place, from a different time, until they land in the present where they begin to glow. Watching Julie Sassoon play, one has the impression that the piano will consume her completely. From hidden depths she unearths the sounds, one by one, she threads them into chains, bundles them up into sound clusters, and lets them slide gently back into silence…”
Bert Noglik – Berlin Jazz Festival Director
“…Land of Shadows is a wonderfully rich and beautiful record. Its also a very brave one that succeeds in taking its message beyond the personal into areas both more spiritual and profound. And, most importantly, its form, its content and its performance combine to tell its story of suffering and transcendence. This is its inner core, its strength of purpose and meaning.”
Duncan Heining – All About Jazz
“… Indeed Land of Shadows might be thought of as ‘The Cologne Concert’ after Jarrett’s ‘The Köln Concert’. It deserves (and, given a chance, will receive) the same kind of recognition and adulation.”
Mike Butler – Dyverse Music
‘Land of Shadows is an impressive album from start to finish… a mix of the simple and complex, gentle and strident, dark and light, it’s powerful and affecting…”
Bruce Lindsay – All About Jazz
