Musicians Clemens Christian Poetzsch and Sven Helbig had known each other for years. They met in 2008 at Dresden’s conservatory, where Helbig taught drums, and Poetzsch studied the piano. Soon enough, they would be playing in the same Jazz trio every Sunday at the city’s famous Blue Note club. For ten years, both would go their separate ways pursuing their distinct musical identities; Helbig delving deeper into orchestra and genre-blurring music and Poetzsch developing his solo piano work. That was until 2019 when Helbig decided to invite his old jazz mate onboard a unique project: Poetzsch plays Helbig. For six months, Helbig would send Poetzsch his compositions, allowing him time to work on each interpretation. As both musicians rekindled over the project, they also made a pact; while they made up for lost time, discussing everything from the past to politics, they would refrain from talking about Helbig’s pieces, allowing Poetzsch complete freedom in his exploration. All ten pieces for the album were selected by Helbig from his previous three albums. The process of interpretation carries in it an exploration, which is as much inwards as it is outwards. As Poetzsch dove into himself, in search of his language and meanings to the compositions he also reached outwards towards Helbig, “Clemens gave the compositions so many more musical colors than I could have expected. The album became what we intended:you hear one half Clemens and one half myself,” explains Helbig. With this half-and-half nature, Clemens Christian Poetzsch plays Sven Helbig’ is an album that carries in it the cadence of a conversation held by two musicians and friends reconnecting.
