The world and life are so rich and have so many things to offer, yet so often we don’t see this hidden beauty.
I realized that whenever I was able to let go of old habits and rigid inner patterns, whenever I stayed open and at ease, amazing things entered into my life.

As a musician, just as everyone else, I live in my own little bubble, experiencing just a fragment of the vastness of being. Yet I believe that certain guiding principals apply to all aspects of life – be it music, art, sports, work etc.

Listening to each other is the most important thing in communication and also in music. Particularly when it comes to improvising, your ears must be wide open. Similarly, you need to give space to what someone else has to say so you can react to it and make it work and sound good together.
What you hear from the other might be different to what you have expected, but only when you make room for it and allow this to maybe even change your own course, an actual dialogue is happening and the potential to create and learn something is unlimited.

For music in general it is essential to mix with new influences and other cultures…in my opinion that is where the greatest potential lays for innovation and development. This is how jazz came into existence in the first place: European music blended with the music of African-American slaves.

As a composer I have realized that the best songs result from emotions of sadness, loneliness and despair; in other words, from “bad things” that were happening to me.
This process has caused me re-valuate terms like “good“ and “bad“, for they are actually difficult to define – “bad” things often lead to something “good “and vica-versa.

In order to let life happen, it is most important to be at ease, relaxed and above all – open.
Ease and the concept of letting go form the basis of all musical technique (for all instruments) and also contains within it the secret of good sound. When you’re tense and closed up, you’re blocking any kind of movement and flow. And flow is yet another guiding principal of life – constant flow and change. If we don’t accept this or even resist it by trying to keep things as they are, we create problems, pain and suffering – not only for ourselves but for everyone around us, for it is known that we always project what’s inside of us onto the outside world.

It takes a lot of courage and determination to let go of old concepts. Everything unknown automatically strikes us with fear. Especially in a world that is becoming more and more complex and where things are changing so rapidly, we easily get frightened and strain for simple answers.
However, answers that don’t acknowledge diversity or include the idea that everything in this world is inter-connected, are short lived and will eventually fail.

Recently i stumbled over the simplest yet most profound message, somewhere I least expected it – in a children’s story. It said: “Have courage and be kind.“
In my opinion this is all it takes and sums it all up. ”Basically it’s all quite simple!”

„Have courage”: Be open, don’t be afraid of change or the new and the unknown, dare to go out there and do things, believe in yourself and be who you really are.
„Be kind”: Always consider, listen, include and appreciate the people and the world around you, because in one way or another we are connected with everyone and everything.
If you have courage and be kind, amazing things will happen to you. If you do so, you are embracing the world and the world will reward you for this.

Looking back, I would say that most of the songs on this album came into being according to this concept.
If I hadn’t been open and let myself be taken by the flow of life, I would have never been to places like Brazil, the USA, Canada, Taiwan and many other unexpected places. Without seeing these places, experiencing life there and meeting certain people I could not have written this music.
In fact I also didn’t plan on recording this album at Schloss Elmau. It was a series of fortunate events and encounters that lead us there.

All this resulted in an album which I find the most stylistically diverse of all triosence recordings.
In a certain way I see the music of Hidden Beauty as an expression of the immense diversity of this world and the reward of choosing to be open.
It is my wish to share this with you, and hope we all become more aware and appreciative about the world and each other. Bernhard Schüler, January 2017