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Joep Beving To Release Fourth Album With Deutsche Grammophon

Hermitism by Joep Beving: “The interpretation of classical philosophy via music”

Joep Beving to release Hermetism Apr2022. Music Press Asia

In a few more days, the contemporary classical pianist and composer Joep Beving will release his fourth album for Deutsche Grammophon. The classical music label releasing this April 8 globally will be showcasing Beving’s return to his solo piano roots. Titled ‘Hermetism, it is an album in search of ideas that are omnipresent in nature.

“I hope that it will have a comforting and communal effect on listeners,” Beving said.

Written concomitantly at the height of the pandemic, Hermetism was borne in an age of opposing factions and apprehension. Its sounds blend intense wistfulness with legitimate optimism. Recorded on Beving’s treasured Schimmel piano, consisting of twelve new tracks recorded on Beving’s Schimmel piano.

Exploring life’s larger-than-life philosophical questions in three previous albums – Solipsism, Prehension, and Henosis, what happens after his trilogy for Deutsche Grammophon? After a short stint composing for a Dutch film and stage play, he returns to the piano to indulge in the spiritual philosophy that governs the universal laws of nature.

“I came back to the piano to feel at home and in tune with myself and my surroundings… I wanted to go by what felt right, which was to go back to the beginning, to solo piano songs, but using everything I had learned during the making of the trilogy.”

For his latest album, he is drawn to the ancient writings closely attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary Greek author, whose concepts involve the principle of rhythm and of cause and effect – in other words to finding the yin and yang in life and its existence. “The teachings around these principles feel so truthful to me and I hope they will inspire others,” Beving said.

“The music has a spiralling, circling nature. It’s as if something is falling and then it gets picked up again, and it could go on like that forever. That image really fits within the concept of Hermetism… I got drawn back to this music almost like a mantra.”

In more than one way, his fascination for life is inspired and influenced by the works of George Gurdjieff. Introspectively, the single Nocturnal released in January reminds us scarcely of Debussy’s melancholy and romanticism associated with Paris. The romantic idea stares mysteriously back at us as we imagine, on a gloomy day, someone playing the piano next to an open window as you walk the streets of Paris; metaphorically a place that represents the western civilisation and the recent madness of the pandemic and its effects.

“In all the madness of recent times, this album has been the thing I’ve kept coming back to. In that sense, Hermetism has been my own medicine for the pandemic.”

Pre-order ‘Hermetism’ here. For more information about Joep Beving, visit official website here.

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15.04.2022 | Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles

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