"Born in 1990, pianist Elias Stemeseder has become a creative force of contemporary jazz in recent years. Based primarily in New York since 2015, the Austrian-born pianist has made a name for himself in a wide variety of advanced improvisational contexts. Up to now, Stemeseder has been content to work as a sideman, though all those familiar with his work in the Jim Black Trio will know that he is a musician of remark - able skill, flair and imagination. His diverse playing ranges from songoriented to contemporary classical pieces to electronic music.

His spirit of discovery leads him into different musical realms and thanks to his great empathy for the respective musical idiom, his piano playing always captivates with authenticity. Deeply rooted in the tradition of jazz and equipped with a fearless passion of experimentation, he distinguishes himself on this solo album as a profound pianist with a sovereign will to create. He is an inventive improviser whose playing sparkles with complexity and conceptual verve. On Piano Solo, Stemeseder skillfully plays with structures and moods and presents an album that is laden with surprises and bursting with ideas. "Stemeseder is a deeply mature musician with an abiding sense of inner reflection. That interior mindset is clear on this dazzling album," writes Peter Margasak in the liner notes."-Intakt Records

"Pianist Elias Stemeseder, Austrian-born and New York-based since 2015, is ready-in 2022-to release his first album under his own name. Piano Solo is something he might not have taken on. He considers himself still a student. If not for the encouragement of Intakt Records' Florian Keller, this album may not have happened. The pianist has contributed, most notably profile-wise, with his work in drummer Jim Black's trio and his playing with reedist Anna Webber and Philipp Gropper, and percussionist Christian Lillinger.

Stemeseder put his diffidence aside in June, 2021, entering the studio with a bunch of frameworks for improvisation. The results reveal an artist with a sprawling imagination taking on an array of conceptual constructs and creating a cohesive sound over the course of fifteen concise tunes. And diffident or not, he has crafted a bold music, agitated. fierce, thoughtful, searching, teetering on an introvert/extrovert tightrope.

And his music has passion. He sounds as if he is spearing small, agile fish with his rapid fire piano notes on "Foeggslia'l" before tapering the intensity down into a sweet, inward reverie. At nearly seven minutes, this is the longest piece on the set. Here, and elsewhere, Stemeseder uses repetition nicely, weaving in the ominous and molding unsettled segments of sound with serenity and pure beauty.

With solo piano, what we get-when the endeavor is successful-is a revelation of the artist's heart, mind and soul. It happens here. A few spins of Piano Solo says that Stemeseder is a wonderful combination of fragility, drive, and unwavering tensile strength and talent, brimming with a sense of wide-eyed and fearless adventure."-Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz