Christmas has more than one musical memory. For some people, it begins with a German hymn. For others, it is a Norwegian carol, a familiar melody from an old film, or simply the feeling of December arriving.
“In A Nu Jazzical Christmas Mood” is out now on Klangspot Nu Jazzical, bringing together 16 recordings by 15 artists. Mastered by Christoph Stickel, the compilation connects Christmas repertoire and winter pieces through contemporary piano, jazz harmony and the individual character of each performer.
Its range is part of the appeal. Experienced producers and jazz musicians sit alongside pianists whose work has grown through the modern classical scene. German, Scandinavian, Irish and English-language traditions meet across the programme, with room for personal compositions between the familiar songs.
The piano provides a shared language, but the musicians approach it from different lives.
A Familiar Melody Can Still Surprise You
Rainer Oleak opens the album with “Leise rieselt der Schnee.” It is a revealing choice: a song so familiar in German-speaking households that its melody can pass almost unnoticed.
Oleak’s interpretation brings attention back to the shape of the tune. Spacious phrasing and subtle harmonic shading allow the melody to feel delicate again. His background stretches across rock, electronic music, production and music for the stage, including work connected with Reinhard Lakomy, Karat and the Störtebeker Festspiele. That experience gives useful context to the restraint of this recording. He knows how much atmosphere a small arrangement can hold. Read the feature on Rainer Oleak’s “Leise rieselt der Schnee.”
Marcus Loeber’s “O Tannenbaum” introduces another immediately recognisable German melody later in the sequence. Loeber’s wider artistic practice centres on free improvisation, including concerts in which the music develops in the moment. That makes his presence particularly interesting on a collection built partly around inherited songs: a pianist deeply engaged with spontaneity encountering a tune that listeners already carry with them. Explore Marcus Loeber’s approach to improvisation.
These familiar titles give the album points of recognition. Around them, the programme gradually opens into other traditions and less familiar winter music.
Stefania Surace and Lennart Büchner: Two Personal Routes into Christmas Repertoire
With “In Quel Mezzo Inverno (In The Bleak Midwinter),” Stefania Surace places an Italian title around a well-known English Christmas carol. Gustav Holst’s melody provides the foundation for her interpretation.
Surace’s story adds another dimension. Before returning seriously to the piano, she studied political science in Rome and continued her education at the College of Europe in Bruges. Her later musical work developed around lyrical, intimate piano writing. That personal route helps explain the directness of her approach here: the melody remains central, with gentle harmonic colour and flexible phrasing around it. Read more about Surace and “In Quel Mezzo Inverno.”
For Lennart Büchner, “Wexford Carol” has a different personal connection. His postgraduate studies took him to the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, and Ireland has already influenced his own writing, including “Suan.”
His contribution grows out of an existing relationship with the country. The traditional carol brings Irish Christmas heritage into a musical world shaped by closeness, atmosphere and reflection. Its precise origins remain uncertain. What matters here is the connection between a place, its repertoire and a musician who has spent time becoming part of its musical life. Read the background to Büchner’s “Wexford Carol.”
December Through Norwegian Eyes
Tore W. Aas contributes “Desember,” a piece whose title broadens the album’s seasonal perspective. December includes Christmas, but it also includes anticipation, early darkness and the ordinary evenings around the celebrations.
Aas brings a substantial history to that setting. He founded the Oslo Gospel Choir in 1988, and his work has become closely connected with Scandinavian choral and Christmas music. His career offers a rich context for an intimate piano contribution: the experience of writing for voices and communities brought into a smaller instrumental setting. Read about Aas and the Oslo Gospel Choir.
The album credits Aas as composer of “Desember,” Hans-Olav Mørk as lyricist and Norsk Musikkforlag AS as publisher. Those underlying songwriting credits remain part of the work’s identity even in an instrumental presentation.
Susanne Darre’s “Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker” deepens the Norwegian connection. The hymn occupies an important place in Scandinavian Christmas culture, and Darre’s own work offers a natural setting for its inward, reflective character.
Her path into releasing music developed outside a conventional conservatory career. She gradually moved from private playing toward sharing her compositions, followed by releases such as “Fragile” and “Travel Back.” That background makes her contribution particularly appropriate to an album interested in personal relationships with music. The hymn becomes part of an ongoing artistic conversation about memory, vulnerability and place. Read the feature on Susanne Darre’s Christmas contribution.
A Christmas Melody That Crossed Borders
Stein Austrud’s “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Det hev ei rose sprunge)” makes the movement between German and Norwegian traditions visible in the title itself.
The same hymn has become meaningful in different languages and cultural settings. Austrud brings another perspective through a career spanning jazz, pop, ambient music and work with Mari Boine. His piano recordings draw on that breadth while remaining attentive to small details of timing and harmony.
Here, the familiar tune stays clear, surrounded by spacious phrasing and restrained jazz colour. Within the album, it becomes a meeting point between a shared European song tradition and an individual Norwegian musical voice. Read more about Stein Austrud’s interpretation.
Becky Malmborg’s “När Juldagsmorgon Glimmar” extends the Scandinavian repertoire into Swedish. Malmborg’s wider catalogue brings together contemporary piano melody and jazz harmony, making her another fitting participant in the album’s conversation between tradition and personal expression. Her contribution also gives the sequence a different cultural point of recognition for listeners who grew up with Swedish Christmas songs. Discover more of Becky Malmborg’s piano work.
Florian Sitzmann and Dieter Falk: Experience Behind the Quietness
Two German hymn interpretations bring musicians with extensive production and arranging backgrounds into the programme.
Florian Sitzmann performs “Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier.” His career includes decades of studio work and more than 20 years as a live keyboardist with Söhne Mannheims. At the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, his teaching encompasses production, keyboards and artist development. See Florian Sitzmann’s Popakademie profile.
That broad experience gives context to a performance built around measured phrasing, open space and the relationship between melody and harmony. The piano carries the emotional weight through careful choices of touch and timing. Each phrase has enough room to settle, allowing the hymn’s reflective character to remain at the centre.
Dieter Falk’s “Wie soll ich dich empfangen (Piano Version)” has a similarly strong connection between repertoire and performer. Falk previously explored Paul Gerhardt’s hymns on “A Tribute to Paul Gerhardt,” released in 2006. His contribution here continues a longstanding engagement with sacred music, piano and contemporary harmony.
The song’s words are credited to Gerhardt and its music to Johann Crüger in the album metadata. Falk’s interpretation keeps that hymn tradition within reach while allowing his own musical vocabulary to shape the performance. Read the feature on Dieter Falk’s piano version.
Winter Music Between the Carols
The album also makes room for pieces whose titles suggest a season, an image or a state of mind.
Jonas Hoffmann’s “Snowflakes” was the first single in the release programme. Its quiet piano movement and gently coloured harmony introduced the collection’s reflective atmosphere. The composition is credited to Jonas Hoffmann Buelund, distinguishing the full writer credit from the performing name. Read about “Snowflakes.”
grosch’s “Where The Lights Are Waiting” offers another point of departure from established Christmas repertoire. Behind the artist name is Mathias Grosch, known for Grosch’s Eleven and his musical direction work on “Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert.” His contribution brings that experience into an intimate piano setting, with warm tone, open harmony and a gentle feeling of anticipation. Read more about grosch’s winter piece.
Near the end, Antonija Pacek contributes “At That Time Of The Year.” The Croatian-born, Austria-based pianist has developed a catalogue of emotionally direct piano music alongside a background in psychology. Her wider work frequently connects music with personal experiences and memory, adding another relevant artistic perspective to this gathering of seasonal interpretations. Explore Antonija Pacek’s background.
Together, these contributions help the album move beyond a straightforward succession of familiar carols. They leave space for the broader experience of winter: anticipation, recollection and the small moments that acquire meaning as the year draws to a close.
“Stille Nacht” and the Weight of Recognition
Placed thirteenth in the running order, Martin Böhmer’s “Stille Nacht” brings the listener back to one of the album’s most recognisable titles.
Its place in the sequence matters. After several different musical and cultural perspectives, a widely shared melody becomes a point of return. Böhmer’s interpretation centres on piano, space and silence, qualities that also connect with the intimate approach found in his other recordings. Explore Klangspot’s Christmas releases.
The album credits Franz Xaver Gruber for the music and Joseph Mohr for the text. Those names are a reminder that even the most familiar seasonal songs began with individual people making something new.
On a collection with so many different backgrounds, “Stille Nacht” becomes a particularly direct point of connection. Listeners may know it in different languages, but the melody carries its own recognition.
Roberto Di Gioia, Twice
Roberto Di Gioia appears twice with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: first in a Piano Version, then in a Fender Rhodes & Piano Version that closes the album.
Keeping both versions gives the programme an opportunity to explore how instrumentation changes our relationship with the same song. The second recording returns to a melody heard earlier, now with a different instrumental palette.
Di Gioia’s background makes that choice especially fitting. His work encompasses Klaus Doldinger’s Passport, Web Web and production collaborations with artists including Max Herre and Joy Denalane. Acoustic piano and electric keyboards belong naturally within that musical range. Read Roberto Di Gioia’s artist biography.
The underlying song credits name Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. Its appearance alongside European carols and winter pieces broadens the album’s repertoire once more, bringing a familiar English-language Christmas standard into the collection.
As the final track, the Fender Rhodes & Piano Version also gives the album a sense of return. A song encountered earlier comes back in another form, offering a fitting close to a programme built around different ways of hearing familiar things.
Mastered by Christoph Stickel
The album was mastered by Christoph Stickel, whose extensive work across jazz and classical music makes him a fitting collaborator for this collection.
His credits include recordings with Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Anne-Sophie Mutter. That experience is particularly relevant to a project where piano tone, dynamics and the space around a phrase carry so much of the expression. Across recordings made by different artists, mastering provides the final stage in preparing the individual contributions for a shared listening experience. Learn more about Christoph Stickel’s mastering work.
The pieces were arranged, recorded and produced by the participating artists, preserving the individual approach behind each contribution. Sascha Bauer, Martin Grotzke and Dirk Mahlstedt served as executive producers.
That combination suits the album’s character: personal recordings brought together within one carefully considered programme.
Complete Album Tracklist
| No. | Artist | Track |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rainer Oleak | Leise rieselt der Schnee |
| 2 | Stefania Surace | In Quel Mezzo Inverno (In The Bleak Midwinter) |
| 3 | Lennart Büchner | Wexford Carol |
| 4 | Tore W. Aas | Desember |
| 5 | Marcus Loeber | O Tannenbaum |
| 6 | Florian Sitzmann | Ich steh an deiner Krippen hier |
| 7 | Roberto Di Gioia | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Piano Version) |
| 8 | Jonas Hoffmann | Snowflakes |
| 9 | Susanne Darre | Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker |
| 10 | Stein Austrud | Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Det hev ei rose sprunge) |
| 11 | Dieter Falk | Wie soll ich dich empfangen (Piano Version) |
| 12 | grosch | Where The Lights Are Waiting |
| 13 | Martin Böhmer | Stille Nacht |
| 14 | Becky Malmborg | När Juldagsmorgon Glimmar |
| 15 | Antonija Pacek | At That Time Of The Year |
| 16 | Roberto Di Gioia | Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Fender Rhodes & Piano Version) |
Album Credits
Artist: Various Artists
Album: In A Nu Jazzical Christmas Mood
Label: Klangspot Nu Jazzical
Availability: Out now
Tracks: 16
Contributing artists: 15
Arranged, recorded and produced by the artists
Executive producers: Sascha Bauer, Martin Grotzke and Dirk Mahlstedt
Mastering: Christoph Stickel
℗ & © 2026 Klangspot Nu Jazzical
An Album for Spending Time With
“In A Nu Jazzical Christmas Mood” offers several ways into the season. A listener might arrive through a childhood carol, recognise a pianist from a very different musical setting, or discover a Scandinavian hymn for the first time.
The running order gives those encounters space. Familiar songs sit beside winter pieces, different traditions overlap, and one Christmas standard returns in two instrumental forms. The collection invites listening across those connections.
For an Advent evening, a quiet meal or an hour spent reading, it offers a varied programme with a shared sense of intimacy. Heard more closely, it also becomes a collection of musical biographies: fifteen artists bringing their experience to songs and images that mean something to them.
“In A Nu Jazzical Christmas Mood” is out now on Klangspot Nu Jazzical. Explore all 16 recordings and find your own way into the season.
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