New Music Release: Christian Artmann | "The Middle Of Life"

Christian Artmann contemplates his, and our, moment in time with the June 2 release by Sunnyside Records of the aptly titled The Middle of Life. An introspective but highly emotional affair—with a sensitive quartet featuring pianist Laszlo Gardony, bassist John Lockwood, and drummer Yoron Israel adding their ruminations—the flutist/composer’s fourth album ponders the state of the world, both positive and negative, in both the personal and broad senses.

Like most of the world, San Francisco (by way of Germany and NYC)–based Christian Artmann found himself during the Covid lockdowns with empty space to take stock of life as it had been and was becoming. For him, though, that thoughtful aspect has not dimmed even as the world moved on from the pandemic. “In this time period for me, I find myself looking forward and backward,” Artmann says. “I’m very conscious of where I am, and of the value of life.”

The addition of regular collaborators (and Berklee College of Music colleagues) Gardony, Lockwood, and Israel—along with vocalist Elena McEntire, who appears on three tunes—brings depth and perspective to Artmann’s wondrous compositions and improvisations. It also creates an absolutely crackling chemistry. This is perhaps paradoxical for an album as mellow and contemplative as The Middle of Life. Nevertheless, the je ne sais quoi that passes between the musicians is unmistakable.

It’s also powerful, whether in the artful slow burn of “Turnaround,” the doleful “Twenty Seven,” or the steady-yet-fickle flow of the title track. The players shine as individuals, with Gardony working a fine solo turn on the troubled “Snow River,” both Lockwood and McEntire taking bravura turns on the classic samba standard “Paisagem da Janela,” and Israel doing arresting work on “The Middle of Life.”

Artmann is exemplary throughout, as strong a soloist on the stark "Lament for Ukraine" as on the bittersweet “Last Words.” Equally strong, however, is his work as a composer, arranger, and bandleader, leading his collaborators on The Middle of Life in a contemplative direction without sacrificing its deeply human core.

Christian Artmann was born May 12, 1975 in what was then Koblenz, West Germany. Although he was a child prodigy on the classical flute, performing at just 15 at the Aspen Music Festival in the United States, his parents tried to dissuade him from a career in music given their families’ struggles in postwar Germany. Artmann continued on anyway, even when he had to keep his obsessive studying and practicing a secret.

Although Christian Artmann made two recordings with pianist Philippine Duchateau (2007’s Good News and 2010’s Living Room, both released in 2017), his own leadership debut came with 2011’s self-released Uneasy Dreams. Fields of Pannonia arrived in 2015, followed by Our Story in 2018. The Middle of Life is his fourth album.

His clandestine passion for music continued into his years in higher education, with Artmann earning degrees at Princeton University (even as he whiled away his free time in the school orchestra) and Harvard Law School (while also studying composition and jazz performance at the nearby Berklee College of Music). He returned to Europe as accomplished on the flute as he was in academia—but even cosmopolitan Vienna couldn’t hold him for long, and Artmann came back to the States in 2005, moving to New York and beginning careers in both the corporate and creative worlds.

Reflecting on the album’s title, Artmann quotes a Buddhist poem: “’The world of dew is just a world of dew. And yet… and yet.’ What an amazingly succinct summary of our life! One fleeting moment in time, and yet so very valuable.”