Weltentraum

Pianist Michael Wollny‘s highly acclaimed trio recording "Weltentraum" is a stunning example of contemporary interpretation in the hands of a unique, fluidly virtuoso artist. Wollny, with both elegance and wit, explores the connection between songs that are worlds apart in terms of both centuries and cultures. In his hands, interpretations of God Is a DJ by pop star Pink and the French Medieval piece Lasse! can logically coexist. Weltentraum was named Album of the Year in 2014 by the critics of Jazzwise.

Michael Wollny’s trio album "Weltentraum" and his 2014 tour of Germany have been the highlights of his career to date. "Weltentraum" garnered praise and acknowledgement from national and international critics, including a cover story in Jazzwise which named it Album of the Year and a four star review in DownBeat. It was also Wollny's commercial breakthrough and set the stage for the wildly successful German shows. This performance was recorded in March 2014 at the Philharmonie Berlin and captures the energy and excitement audiences felt during the tour.

This release owes its original inspiration to a book published in 2013 entitled 'Nachtmeerfahrten' (Sea Journeys by Night), which takes the reader over to the dark side of romanticism, to a world of fantasy, of eerie shadows, and things that go bump in the night. Producer Siggi Loch edited the 'Meer' (sea) part out of the title, which therefore became 'Nachtfahrten' (Night Journeys), which suits this pianist, who is a creature of the nocturnal realm. He feels very much at home in a world of grey cats and blurred outlines, where the contrasting emotions of the moment can leave all rational expectations behind; this is a backdrop which is alive with possibility, but also with trepidation.

“Three men, three pianos, one emotion – jazz”. These were the words with which German national TV news succinctly summed up the piano summit on 31st May 2016 in a sold-out main hall of the Berlin Philharmonie – a concert which can now be experienced exclusively on vinyl. And the TV news reporter continued: “Iiro Rantala, Leszek Możdżer, Michael Wollny. Each in a class of his own. Together, they’re a miracle”. Is there perhaps an element of déjà vu in this story? Yes, certainly.

"As an improviser, you often find that it‘s not the compositions themselves you‘re playing, but your own memories of them. And as these memories come back to you in the moment, they assert their continuing existence in the here and now," says Michael Wollny. In other words, songs are like ghosts. Wollny‘s new album "Ghosts" is a gathering of some of the ghosts that regularly haunt him. Typically for Wollny, they range from classics like Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig" to jazz standards, film music, songs with a certain fragility by Nick Cave, say, or the band Timber Timbre, and also include his own darkly evocative original compositions.

“Three men, three pianos, one emotion – jazz”. These were the words with which German national TV news succinctly summed up the piano summit on 31st May 2016 in a sold-out main hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. And the TV news reporter continued: “Iiro Rantala, Leszek Możdżer, Michael Wollny. Each in a class of his own. Together, they’re a miracle”. Is there perhaps an element of déjà vu in this story? Yes, certainly. Because these were the same three jazz piano greats who had performed at the very first ‘Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic’ in December 2012, the event which triumphantly set in motion the concert series curated by Siggi Loch at the German capital city’s classical music shrine.

“Wartburg” fizzes and shimmers with all the acuity of Michael Wollny's senses and his protean capacity to be alive to the possibilities and the magic of the moment. This is improvising at the limit, life seen through a dream. The album also documents a first-ever encounter of his trio with Emile Parisien, arguably the most influential and original voice on soprano sax today. A unique moment in contemporary jazz.