"The music this trio plays is the opposite of harmless. It is music that is excitingly intense, expressive, and shimmering with kaleidoscopic complexity. It is piano trio music that is both highly complex and intensely sensual in which the composition plays a central roll, a music that consummately goes its own way."-Pirouette

"Achim Kaufmann (piano, composer, electronics) was born in Aachen, Germany, and has been living in Amsterdam since 1996. He is involved in a number of different projects, some of them all improvised, some of them featuring his own compositions: His gueuledeloup quartet (with Michael Moore, John Hollenbeck, Henning Sieverts) "melds elements of the free zone with tenderly executed dreamscape type passages" (allaboutjazz) Their two CDs, gueuledeloup (Red Toucan, 2002) and double exposure (Leo, 2000) have been called "models of some of the finest forward-thinking chamber jazz coming out of Europe today."

The improvising trio of Achim Kaufmann, Frank Gratkowski and Wilbert de Joode has released two discs so far (on Konnex and on nuscope) and is currently preparing their third release of energetic, multi-layered improvised chamber music. Trio Kamosc (with Michael Moore and Dylan van der Schyff) is another group that mixes composition and improvisation in unique ways, including "blatantly traditional" materials that are treated as found objects. The trio played a beautiful set at the 2007 Vancouver jazz festival; hopefully there will be more work before too long. Achim recently composed and recorded Borderline - From the Shadows of a Journey, an audiodrama for two voices and five musicians, created as a joint project with his wife Gabriele Guenther (text), singer db boyko, and the Vancouver-based ensemble, Talking Pictures (Ron Samworth, Peggy Lee, Dylan van der Schyff, and Bill Clark). It was premiered in June 2007 in Vancouver, a CD is currently in preparation.

In 2007 and 2008, Achim has been working on repertoires for different piano trios: kyrill with Jim Black and the Icelandic bass player Valdi Kolli got released by Pirouet Records in the fall of 2008. A recording with Han Bennink and Wilbert de Joode is due for release in 2009. Starmelodics is a collaborative trio effort with Mark Dresser and Harris Eisenstadt, released on nuscope recordings in the fall of 2008. In the past, Achim has written music for string quartet. He also works infrequently (and hopefully more often in the future) as a solo performer. In 2001, he was awarded the prestigious German SWR Jazz Award."-Achim Kaufmann Website