CAN YOU HEAR SILENCE?

Tim Allhoff claims it; or at least the title of his latest album SILENCE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN ACTUALLY HEAR suggests so.

It's not the first time he has used an album title in reference to a book. For MORLA, his previous release, he used Michael Ende's "Neverending Story" as an inspiration, this time it's a quote from "Kafka on the Shore", a novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. "Murakami's phrase fits just perfectly for what I wanted to express with this music," Tim Allhoff explains. The book is a story of two worlds, the conscious and the subconscious one, and takes the readers out of their physical realm and into their inner selfs. Allhoff masterfully captures the theme of inner contemplation in his music and invites us to close our eyes and listen. He aims to create a counterpole to our society, that is getting constantly louder and faster. He invites lo linger in the moment, and immerse oneself in one's inner self, carried by his atmospheric and melancholic works.

His composition KANON uniquely reflects this. It has a meditative mood which doesn’t miss it’s effect. "When I started writing for this album, I quickly realized that I wanted to present rather contemplative works which draw their energy from tranquility. The world around us is getting even faster and louder every day - it often appears as there is no time left to dwell in the moment and really listen." The Munich-based artist, who describes himself as a wanderer between musical worlds, breaks genre conventions without effort, creating an unbiased, fascinating soundscape. On the album's opener, Edvard Grieg's ARIETTA, he freely improvises on the harmonic structure of the piece, quickly making room for two worlds - Classical and Jazz. The boundaries between the genres become blurred - like the boundaries between reality and dream in Murakami's novel.

Working with strings or woodwinds is nothing new for Tim Allhoff, who regulary writes for many different instrumentations. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that this album does not exclusively feature solo piano pieces, but also fantastic guest musicians such as the Vienna Morphing Soloists and the SIGNUM Saxophone Quartet.

The string quartet is featured on his touching arrangement of Henry Purcell's DIDO'S LAMENT, as well as on Theo Mackeben's SCHLUMMERLIED, Sibylle Baier's I LOST SOMETHING IN THE HILL or his version of the Depeche Mode classic ENJOY THE SILENCE, whose title reflects the message of the whole album just so perfectly. The amazing quartet is also featured once again on Allhoff's original composition PRISMA. Another feature guest is the critically acclaimed SIGNUM saxophone quartet, showcased on Allhoff's gorgeous piece KANON. "I was extremely pleased to collaborate with the SIGNUMS," Allhoff enthuses. "The four of them expressed the meditative, almost fragile mood of the composition just perfectly."

SILENCE IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING YOU CAN HEAR is Tim Allhoff’s ninth album as a leader. It covers classical pieces like Bach or Grieg, singer-songwriter, jazz, or pop covers, as well as new original composition. All works are characterized by a special warm, calm, sometimes almost mystical atmosphere. Tim Allhoff opens an incredibly captivating world of sound. If we follow his invitation to listen to this musical silence, we might discover a very own inner world within us.