Eigengrau

Vincent Meissner - Eigengrau

CD / Vinyl / digital

Vincent Meissner piano 
Josef Zeimetz bass 
Henri Reichmann drums

"The more new discoveries you make, the more you go back to the beginning," observes pianist Vincent Meissner. The music on his third album, “Eigengrau”, is characterised by an inward gaze, by his reflections on experiences and encounters that have been meaningful to him. Together with his working trio, Josef Zeimetz on bass and Henri Reichmann on drums, Vincent Meissner has developed his own language, drawing inspiration from artists such as The Bad Plus, Esbjörn Svensson, Vijay Iyer – and his mentor, Michael Wollny. 

“The word ‘Eigengrau’ describes a state of darkness behind closed eyes,” Meissner explains. “But once you rub your eyes, you see patterns. Everyone sees something different: structures, objects, perhaps nothing at all...and that’s what our music is like – creating a distinct image for every listener." On stage, the trio is in constant motion, often exploding with pure energy. In the studio, Vincent Meissner, his fellow musicians and producer Andreas Brandis have sought a paring down of melody, texture and mood. On the album, the three are in close focus, with every note as an exploration, each of the tracks an invitation to finely honed and playful yet profound interchange.

For Vincent Meissner, the fact that you can always listen to his mentor Michael Wollny is a compliment. What they both have in common is the urge to embrace the unknown, to accept things that simply happen. "Sometimes mistakes are the best thing you can do," says Meissner. "Through them you gradually understand more and more, a mystery dissolves, a new tool appears in the big playground. Wollny says: Now you have something new to experiment with again." Vincent Meissner listens to music non-stop in order to better understand what others are doing and then to better understand what he himself is doing. He can't play without listening. He needs encounters with people and also time without the piano, which leads him back to the piano. "Sometimes I might not touch the piano. It's essential, like a relationship. If you see each other all the time, 24/7, what else do you want to tell each other?"

At its heart, then, and despite the depth and complexity, “Eigengrau” is an album of songs. That suits Vincent Meissner's unpretentious personality. Not always showing everything, playing what the music needs, not what the ego demands. Its nine highly focused tracks are always emotionally involved rather than detached, and each in a subtly different way.  “Eigengrau” flickers and shimmers with intense and carefully gradated pastel shades; their appeal is never less than totally hypnotic.

Credits: 
Music composed by Vincent Meissner - except #A03 (Prince) and #B05 (T. Yorke, J. Greenwood, E. O`Brien, P. Selway) 
Produced by Andreas Brandis 
Recorded by Johannes Kellig, between 8-10 September 2024 at Jazzanova Studios Berlin, Germany 
Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann 
Lacquer disc cutting by scape mastering 
Photo by Niklas Wagenbrenner
Cover art by Mascha Schultz, used by kind permission of the artist
Cover design by Siggi Loch