Katya Sourikova is a Russia-born, Berlin-based classicaly-trained jazz pianist and composer. After Bach is her fifth album, released more than ten years after her previous one, Queen Maud Land (WEAVE, 2015). The album was inspired and reflects her long fascination with J.S. Bach’s contrapuntal thinking, and she translated his Baroque structural clarity into a modern, chamber piano jazz trio format.
Sourikova is accompanied by Canadian, Berlin-based double bass player Miles Perkin, who, like Sourikova, feels at home in jazz, experimental, new music, and multidisciplinary settings, and Norwegian, Stavanger-based drummer Ståle Birkeland (of The Kitchen Orchestra and Didrik Ingvaldsen’s Pocket Corner). Perkin and Birkeland gently ground Sourikova’s contemplative compositions, stressing her transparent approach to sound.
After Bach was recorded at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The lyrical, often melancholic spirit reflects the dark, global atmosphere. Sourikova’s thoughtful compositions suggest «a montage of shade and light», and according to Sourikova, despite the current darkness, «there is always hope». Her profound melodic themes allow a gentle, spacious interplay and introspective modernistic counterpoint, and let her compositions move between delicate states of tension and resolution, often with a spiritual, hymn-like quality.
Eyal Hareuveni
Katya Sourikova (piano), Ståle Birkeland (drums), Miles Perkin (double bass)
