Following the highly acclaimed series of quartet recordings - "Not Far From Here" (2019), "The Next Door" (2022) and "Under The Surface" (2025) - German pianist Julia Hülsmann has decided to open a new chapter with an octet of award-winning instrumentalists and singers. On "While I Was Away", Julia combines the instrumentation of a classical trio (violin, cello, piano) with that of a standard jazz piano trio and invites three singers to join her for a program of adventurous original compositions, an individual interpretation of Ani DiFranco's 1999 hit "Up Up..." and an upbeat Brazilian piece by songwriter Zélia Fonseca. The music is often combined with texts by renowned authors such as Emily Dickinson, Margaret Artwood and E. E. Cummings. A broad palette of musical echoes unfolds when Brazilian dance, musical-like narrative styles, chamber music dynamics and passages of dense, free improvisation paint the fluorescent picture of a powerful ensemble. The musicians: inside Julia's octet are: Eva Klesse, Eva Kruse, Susanne Paul, Héloïse Lefebvre, Michael Schiefel, Aline Frazão and Live Maria Roggen.