Christoph Stiefel - Full Tree (2023)

When a portal opens, you are supposed to enter. On Full Tree, the new quintet and eponymous album by Swiss composer, pianist and bandleader Christoph Stiefel, all the gates, windows and hatches open and invite listeners to participate – from the very first moment. No matter where you listen to the album, a great, soothing breeze wafts through the room and blows away the confining mental isolation from the past years. Full Tree is a confession of the joy of existence drawn from the abundance of life and, not least, a fully grown tree full to bursting with sweet fruits, one that carries Christoph Stiefel's decades of work towards a new level of maturity.

From the interplay of voices, impulses and intentions, something much greater than the sum of its parts emerges, all based on Stiefel’s templates.

Christoph Stiefel lets himself be fully carried away by the force, passion and inventive joy of his fellow musicians.

It can be that simple, and it can sound that beautiful. Full Tree cultivates life for music. Christoph Stiefel reaches out with all ten fingers and the extended arms of his fellow musicians to the billowing diversity of life, sucks life into himself and carries his music back into life. An organic give and take full of humility, gratitude and desire for everything that may come.