The Berlin Guitarist Hub Hildenbrand is one of the exceptional figures in contemporary guitar music. This former Berklee College scholarship holder (Boston/USA) has provided an impressive demonstration of his distinctive musicality with his acclaimed debut CD "Heimat", a highly imaginative concept album or "audio film". With its successor "News From Afar", the virtuoso guitarist once again presents his compositions in a bold and expansive context, a world musical journey of varied genres, styles and sounds.

Hub Hildenbrand has demonstrated himself to be an accomplished "global player" with a broad stylistic vision, which he brings to life with fascinating adaptability and passion. Whether on fretless classical nylon-string, fretless octave steelstring or on his Gibson archtop, his colourful playing is always totally convincing. Hildenbrand has made a intensive study of both Indian and Turkish music, and his interests in the latter have led him to the Turkish Music Conservatory in Berlin. He is one of the very few musicians to have successfully adapted Turkish microtonality to the guitar by means of string bending.

The readiness to adopt elements from the music of different ethnic cultures and to adapt and interpret them using the language of jazz, has allowed the Hub Hildenbrand Trio to create an absolutely distinctive musical language of their own.

Extended melodic passages, mystical ostinati, oriental embellishments, Indian raga atmosphere, western pop sensibility, collective improvisation and evocative sound images are woven together to create an intense aural tapestry. Their music comes from deep within and directly touches the heart of the listener.

Berlin, where the trio is based, has long been a cultural melting pot. In a shrinking global society, the trio sees the musical confrontation with "otherness" as an inevitable necessity of life. Their level of musical interaction and collective use of sound, time, and space are nothing short of virtuoso, opening the door to a musical wonderland filled with beauty and mystery which beguiles the listener and has a genuinely uplifting message: "in our world, all music is one". The performances of the Trio offer an exciting new way to discover and understand this message.

(translation: Steve Baker, Phil Bocking)

CD "Heimat":

„Hörfilm“ nennt Hub Hildenbrand seine neue CD ‚Heimat‘. Man muss dem Berliner Gitarristen großes Lob aussprechen für dieses Kaleidoskop aus assoziativer Musik und sinnlichen Klangbildern. Jazzgitarrist Hildenbrand bedient nicht die Klischees des Genres, sondern lebt sein Faible für orientalische Klänge aus. Ergebnis: Jazzige Offenheit, temperamentvolle Ausbrüche, kollektive Improvisationen, Klang-Collagen und lange Melodiebögen gehen eine harmonische Verbindung ein mit bildhaften Motiven, verfremdeten Instrumentenklängen, schimmernden Sound-Skulpturen, mystischen Ostinati, morgenländischer Mikrotonalität. ‚Heimat‘ ist ein Gesamtkunstwerk, das mit strukturellen Mitteln der Filmkunst der Musik eine selten gehörte Mehrdimensionalität verleiht. Das Zusammenspiel der Musiker ist traumhaft, der gemeinsame Umgang mit Zeit, Klang und Raum ist virtuos. Und damit steht nun die Tür offen zur musikalischen Wunderwelt des Hub Hildenbrand, voller Schönheit und Geheimnis.