Linus Rebmann Trio - Listen To The River Linus Rebmann Trio

With their debut album "Listen To The River", to be released on June 5, 2026 via Jazzhaus Records, the Linus Rebmann Trio presents a work full of passion and sonic diversity, standing for young, modern, and energetic jazz.
Pianist and bandleader Linus Rebmann, together with Gabriel Widmaier on double bass and Johnny Walker on drums, shapes a transparent and powerful sound characterized by great joy in playing and a palpable sense of familiarity. The album's ten original compositions tell of observations, inner movements, and moments whose depth is better expressed through music than words.
The three young musicians met in the Baden- Wurttemberg Landesjugendjazzorchester, and after winning the "Jugend jazzt south- west" competition in 2024, the trio was awarded the prestigious Deutschlandfunk Studiopreis at the national meeting. This made it possible to produce the album in the legendary Kammermusiksaal of Deutschlandfunk in Cologne - a space that has been among the country's finest recording venues for decades. The band members deliberately chose an intimate setting for the recordings. Everything was played through a single main microphone, without subsequent corrections to individual instruments. A working method that demands absolute presence and mutual trust. It is precisely this immediacy that shapes the sound of "Listen To The River": the album is transparent, organic, flowing, almost breathing.
On the final day of recording, the highly acclaimed tenor saxophonist and WDR Big Band member Paul Heller joined the session, adding a well-known name from the jazz scene. He had met the trio at the "Jugend jazzt" prizewinners' concert in Dortmund, and the chemistry was there right from the start. As a quartet, they recorded the tracks "The Walker" and "Walking Birds." The latter is based on the observation of a small bird whose "half-walking, half-hopping" movement fascinated Linus Rebmann. The result is a piece with a buoyant beat, playful lightness, and humor - an example of how the album's inspiration often arises from everyday moments and transforms them into something special.
At the heart of the album is the title track "Listen To The River" with its simple, pure melody. Linus Rebmann found the key inspiration while reading Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha: "The eventful journey Siddhartha undergoes in his long search for enlightenment culminates at the river. By listening to the river, by understanding all events and facets of life as one great, wonderful whole, he finds himself and the truth." The calm, flowing character of the music reflects this very idea: movement and stillness, searching and arriving at once. Yet pieces like "Drive" or "Grow Up", characterized by powerful drumming and rhythmic accents, introduce momentum and at times transform the gentle river into a powerful and rousing current. The band also demonstrates a willingness to experiment with different art forms, styles, and eras in the piece "Scotty's Case": inspired by the tragic love story of Scotty and Madeleine in Hitchcock's classic film Vertigo, the composition takes its starting point from Mozart's famous "Dissonanzenquartett" and continues its dramatically descending lines until the classical source material evolves into a strikingly modern jazz piece. The diverse album thus moves continuously between the poles of calm and motion, force and contemplation.
"Experiencing music together means letting go for a moment and embarking on an exciting journey together. For us, the greatest compliment is when our music moves the audience," says Linus Rebmann. The pieces thrive on vital improvisation that captivates both devoted fans and newcomers to jazz alike. The trio reveals its youthful, playful side with virtuosity and confidence, always accompanied by remarkable musical maturity and finesse. With their debut album, the band underscores its ambition to rethink contemporary jazz in an independent and authentic way. Like the river in Hesse's narrative, the music on the album is constantly in motion, rising at times, then calm and flowing, but also wild, free, and above all - alive.