Advertisement
Music

Post-classical pioneer Joep Beving concludes stunning trilogy with ‘Henosis’

The Dutch musician found an unexpected audience in a streaming upsurge. Claire Jackson catches him live in Amsterdam at a showcase for the final instalment in Beving’s debut trilogy

Joep Beving sits at an upright piano, his back slightly hunched. The instrument appears doll-like against the Dutch pianist’s 6ft 10in frame. The audience waits. The stage is dimly lit by a photograph of hands stretching towards each other, projected on to a screen above the piano. From the darkness comes a gentle keyboard motif that grows in gradual confidence.

Beving coaxes the melody, like a sculptor moulding clay. Cameras flash: this is the first official showcase of Beving’s latest album, Henosis, due for release in April. It’s the third instalment in a trilogy of albums, and concludes an unexpected chapter in Beving’s life that has seen his recordings streamed online over 85 million times – almost accidentally.

It all came as a something of a surprise to Beving, who had been quietly creating music at home in Amsterdam. Encouraged by his family and colleague Rahi Rezvani, with whom he had collaborated during his day job in advertising, Beving decided to share his music with a wider audience. He just didn’t realise how wide that audience would become. His first album, Solipsism, was a hit with streaming service Spotify, with listeners drawn to the contemplative nature of Beving’s simple,beautiful melodies.

Last year he wrote and performed Drone Ballet at Burning Man festival, where an autonomous flying swarm of 300 illuminated drones lit up the sky.

Deutsche Grammophon, whose roster includes electro-classical composer Max Richter and popular composer-pianist Ludovico Einaudi alongside its ‘core’ classical artists, signed Beving right away.

Beving’s sound encompasses solo piano, strings and voice, and straddles the space between pop, electronica and art music – sometimes referred to as ‘post-classical’ music. Last year he wrote and performed Drone Ballet at Burning Man festival, where an autonomous flying swarm of 300 illuminated drones lit up the sky. Like Einaudi, Beving makes his albums available to purchase in sheet music form, so that fans can also play the pieces as well as listen. (The music to Solipsism and Prehension is out now, with Henosis coming soon.)

Advertisement
Advertisement

Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

Read All
Laura Mvula: 'I don't know if I'd be a singer without my family'
Laura Mvula recording her rendition of Paul Simon's 'I Know What I Know' for John Lewis. Image: John Lewis
Music

Laura Mvula: 'I don't know if I'd be a singer without my family'

Reverend and the Makers release Samaritans charity single: 'You don't have to be on your own at Christmas’
Jon McClure from Reverend and the Makers
Music

Reverend and the Makers release Samaritans charity single: 'You don't have to be on your own at Christmas’

New Order's Transmissions podcast digs up wild new stories of the band – and I'm mad for it
New Order in 1989
Music

New Order's Transmissions podcast digs up wild new stories of the band – and I'm mad for it

Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie: 'I had a young family – children and hard drugs don’t mix'
Bobby Gillespie
Letter To My Younger Self

Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie: 'I had a young family – children and hard drugs don’t mix'

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue