global The Ahn Trio: A lullaby for their bio

Korean ensemble “Ahn Trio” have just added another important puzzlepiece to their already powerful bio: After the US release of their latest album "Lullaby for my Favorite Insomniac" in March, the disc has now been published in Europe on 30th May. "Lullaby for my Favorite Insomniac" is the first CD the Ahn Trio have recorded for one of the industry’s leaders, Sony BMG Masterworks, and their enthusiasm about the opportunities this deal has bestowed upon them is almost contageous: “The biggest news as we near the end of March is, of course, the multi-album deal the Ahns have signed with SonyBMG Masterworks, one of the preeminent record labels in the international music world”, their extremely well-maintained (yet painfully hard to load) website proclaimed, “They are so thrilled to have this powerhouse behind them to help them produce and distribute their music to a wider audience than ever before!” For anyone who has followed the the Ahn Trio’s background in more depth, however, the move must also come as a bit of a surprise. In January of 2007, after all, they had iaunched their own record company “Lucia Angella Maria”, issuing a press statement which claimed this allowed them to “pursue their passion for new music freely and unhindered” and “without the constraints placed on them by a bigger label”.

Maybe that original press release needs to be re-read. When they started out, after all, the Ahn Trio were just another Piano trio with a nice, but ultimately unsensational bio to their credit. Through a string of commissions from composers such as Maurice Jarre abd Nikolai Kapustin as well as work for rockmusicians like Brian Adams (they supported him on his “unplugged” concert), the Ahn Trio have built a reputation as a “cutting edge” group, eager to redefine what a classical ensemble can and should do. As it seems, “Lucia Angella Maria” continues to exist side by side with the Sony BMG editions, allowing for more edgey material to surface and smaller print runs to be put out.

With regards to "Lullaby for my Favorite Insomniac", there were no compromises anyway. The disc, after all, was supposed to be the first album on LAM, before catching the eyes and ears of managers at Sony. With its mixture of transcriptions of music by Rodgers & Hart, Astor Piazzolla and David Bowie/Pat Metheny (“This Is Not America”), as well as commissions from Kenji Bunch; commissioned works from both Michael Nyman and Ronn Yedidia, it is now set to light up the classical music sky in 2008 in grand style.

More good news on the Ahn Trio is to follow soon, as they have already raved on their musical encounter with Maurice Jarre, who wrote a trio especially for them.

Homepage: The Ahn Trio
Homepage: The Ahntrio at MySpace
Homepage: Sony BMG Masterworks
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-06-04

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