Dirk Maassen

In the organizer's words:

Dirk Maassen's new album "Inception" will be released in October 2024. The work, which represents a noticeable further development of the pianist's previous work, deals with the theme of pure, organic creation and musical origins. It will be launched at a concert on November 10 in Munich's Freiheitshalle. Concerts throughout Germany will follow in spring 2025.

After five albums under contract with Sony Classicals, "Inception" was conceived and recorded entirely on the band's own initiative. The pieces on the album all paint emotions and stories associated with creation and origins. Maassen demonstrates his characteristic talent for interweaving complex piano melodies and cinematic atmospheres.

The title "Dans le Coeur", a piece that Maassen wrote after a ballet performance by his daughter, is particularly close to the artist's heart. "It was this moment when I realized how she was growing into an independent, strong young woman and going her own way," describes Maassen. "The piece is my musical reflection on how I have to let her go, but at the same time always feel a deep connection to her." This personal experience is reflected in a haunting composition that attempts to capture the fleeting moment that contains so much emotion.

The "musical origin", as Maassen describes it, is a central theme of the album. For him, it is the moment in which music flows naturally without him giving it much thought. "It's a state in which I just sit down at the piano and the music comes out of me - unfiltered, spontaneous, unpolished," he explains. "On 'Inception', I wanted to capture precisely this origin - the magic of the moment in which the music is created before it is changed by post-production or a long composition process."
Maassen, who was born in Aachen in 1970 and now lives in Ulm, is internationally renowned for his moving, gentle and stylistically unique soundscapes. His music is streamed by over a million people worldwide every month. After a creative break at the turn of the millennium, during which he concentrated on his family and career, he returned as a solo pianist in 2010. This new beginning came about by chance when he uploaded a piece to SoundCloud, which quickly went viral and reached number one in the SoundCloud Classic Charts. "The response was overwhelming, and I think it was so well received precisely because there was no calculation behind it. It was authentic music that deals with real stories and feelings," says Maassen.
His compositions have deeply touched millions of listeners worldwide and have been used in several film projects, including the award-winning film "Crossroads" at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.