Almost seven years after their last release, tenor saxophonist and composer Philipp Gropper’s band with Elias Stemeseder (piano, synths), Robert Landfermann (double bass) and Leif Berger (drums) is releasing two new albums on January 27.
With “2024” and “2025”, PHILM are opening a new chapter for themselves and further refining their long-standing and rightly celebrated consequent understanding of jazz and storytelling through music.
„2024″ was named after the year it was created and recorded in Zentrifuge, an old Berlin cinema. “In August that year, we were searching for rhythmic mantras” Philipp Gropper explains, „for new, multi-layered rhythms and unfamiliar forms”. Catapulted into strange worlds by Gropper’s compositions, PHILM is all about the emotional content of these grooves and navigating in them together. PHILM’s members’ mutual respect for each other’s practices, their interpersonal chemistry and the adventurous creative atmosphere in the studio left marks on the sound.
The second album, „2025″, was recorded live at Cologne’s venue Loft. The sound here is darker and more emotional. The two pieces “no words” I and II are good examples, as they deal with feelings of bewilderment and horror in the face of current geopolitical crises, wars and the ongoing destructive role of the global north. Between dissonance and beauty, a wide range of emotions unfolds.
Lucy Zhao is a pipa 琵琶 player – a plucked bowl-necked lute used in classical Chinese music and one of the most popular Chinese instrument. Her work spans traditional Chinese repertoire, contemporary music, and free improvisation.
Based in Europe since 2016, she performs internationally as a soloist and ensemble musician, appearing at venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, ZKM Karlsruhe, Haus für Mozart Salzburg, and Mozarthaus Vienna and as a member of the pipa orchestra at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Her playing explores the pipa’s rich sonic history alongside new textures and expressive possibilities sonic and emotional journeys into untouched spheres that try to cast a spell over her.
AL.Berlin is a cultural collective and platform based in Berlin since 2019, dedicated to creating spaces of encounter through music, art, and critical exchange. Rooted in the contemporary cultures of South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) and its many diasporas, their work focuses especially on live music as a powerful, sensory, and communal experience, one that connects people, creates shared memories, and builds lasting networks.
Philipp Gropper’s PHILM Record Release show + Lucy Zhao * Pipa 赵路曦 * 琵琶 + AL.Berlin crew vinyl set
Tuesday, 27.1.2026
90mil
