NEW RELEASE – JOEP VAN RHIJN

The further away one travels and the longer one stays abroad, the more intense one now and then is overwhelmed by feelings and thoughts about one’s roots. It’s a paradoxical phenomenon that most likely is familiar to trumpeter and flugelhorn player Joep van Rhijn, Dutchman who makes his living in South-Korea. His latest album is a duet with pianist Yuonseung Cho and (partly) uses Dutch titles as the starting point for melodies and improvisation.

Van Rhijn stately and melancholically ruminates on Vergane Glorie (faded glory, decay) and ponders about Morgenrood (think: the famous Dutch horizons that inspired the Great Dutch Painters) while happily reminisces about childhood pleasures in Zweefmolen (carrousel).

Van Rhijn says: “The discussion about fact and fiction in journalism is very serious and important, but in music, the tension between fact and fiction is what makes it magical. This album is a search for a balance between transparency and clarity in music while leaving space for the listener’s imagination.”

Van Rhijn’s flugelhorn sound is like whipped cream and bittersweet and he focuses on bright, lyrical lines, balladeering smoothly on A Lady, which also features a niftily constructed Bill Evans-ish solo by Cho. Van Rhijn and Cho interact emphatically throughout this album of sweet and sour and playful songs.

Check out Joep’s website https://joepvanrhijn.com/