Anette von Eichel - Inner Tide (2021)

After Anette von Eichel opened a small window for the audience in 2001 with her debut CD “Welcome To My World” to let people discover a previously unknown vocal talent, the spectacular and official start of her career was in 2004 with the release of “Get Out Now” in the beginnings of Jazz thing Next Generation. She has been teaching at the Academy of Music and Dance in Cologne as a professor of jazz singing since 2010. Nevertheless, she realigns her musical parameters and surprises with releases that stand out from the enormous sea of sound recording media in a pleasantly unpretentious way. After “Golightly” (Double Moon DMCHR 71106) from 2012, a duo CD in 2017 and a Mingus project in 2019, “Inner Tide” is now her next work.

The album unites a top-class instrumental combo with pianist Sebastian Sternal, bassist Henning Sieverts, drummer Jonas Burgwinkel and saxophonist Jonas Blom, in which the names alone prove that they cannot be reduced to mere accompanists. “This is exactly where I am now,” Anette von Eichel described the core statement of the nine titles of “Inner Tide”. For her, it is a sign of the way, as always, when the singer, after a supposedly quieter public phase, comes out into the open again, deeply authentic, prominently, the field staked out with the “Eichel” brand. Or as she puts it laughingly: “Pure Me.” Her older albums always featured pieces by others that fit her well. “Now, for the first time everything comes from me, not only the lyrics, but also the entire music. This is a big and important step for me, almost a new phase of my identity. And the result really makes me very, very happy!”

“Inner Tide”, the motto of the album, describes the intention of the vocalist, for whom improvisation is an essential part of her self-conception. It's about the inner tides, these special moments between emotional low and tides. “This is how I sweetly pass through my days and nights, a bit out of this world, humming, rising and sinking with my Inner Tide,” as expressed in the last verse of the song “Secret Garden.” Anette von Eichel: “Everyone has these secret gardens in their inner self, into which they retreat again and again, where they can let themselves fall and feel all the ups and downs.” She does this in her inimitable way and with the intuitive sense of being able to use her own voice as an instrument. Especially when you listen attentively to Anette von Eichel, one of the most intonation-assured, steadfast jazz vocalists on the German scene, you suddenly remember how important hitting the right tone in the context of a successful performance can actually be.

“I even see getting older an advantage,” the 49-year-old admitted with disarming openness. “I know myself better, can do more than 10, 15 years ago, and listen better, both harmoniously and rhythmically. And my voice has also developed. Not so much the lyrical mezzo-soprano I was at a young age, but more adult, more mature.” This is also what satisfaction and being in harmony with yourself sounds like. In fact, “Inner Tide” reveals the best ever Anette von Eichel. “It was my idea to listen to my inner self.” she said.