About this item

Berlin’s Moses Yoofee Trio release their debut full-length, MYT on Nils Frahm’s LEITER. The German group recorded much of the album over ten days in April 2024 at Glaswald Studios, in the countryside outside Stuttgart, before returning to Berlin to polish the results and record two further tracks at LEITER’s Funkhaus studio. Available on vinyl and via all digital platforms, the album was produced by the trio with long-time collaborator and mixing engineer oh.no.ty.

Before coming together as a band, all three members were already deeply involved in the music scene, touring, recording, and producing for a wide range of artists and bands. They connected in 2020 when Moses met Roman at Berlin’s Jazz Institute, and it was the latter who suggested they jam with his friend Noah, who was living in southern Germany at the time but frequently visited Berlin. Amid the extended lockdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic, the trio embraced the chance to fully immerse themselves in the creative process.

Since then, Moses Yoofee Trio have cultivated an extraordinary reputation for their shows, and this year they won the German Jazz Prize’s prestigious Live Act of The Year award. Recent highlights include a 2,500-capacity Elbjazz Festival booking beside Hamburg’s harbour, a riotous appearance at London’s Jazz Festival, and an intimate gig before 200 people at the German capital’s now redundant Tempelhof Airport on the rooftop of an air traffic control tower.

Despite their own work as a trio, all three musicians remain busy elsewhere, with Moses, like Roman, often working with chart-topping Berlin-based Peter Fox, a frontman for reggae/dancehall/hip hop crossover act SEEED, and accompanying him on his extensive solo tours. Noah, meanwhile, plays with another renowned artist, German-American rapper Casper, as well as Sweden’s acclaimed Petter Eldh and German comedian / actor / musician Teddy Teclebrhan.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's much to love here for fans of electronic jazz like Gogo Penguin or Portico quartet, with the talented German trio lending a little more frenetic action than those two. Despite the fast moving (and impeccably played) percussion, it never feels too far from a melody or too abstracted from the main tonal message for my (admittedly jazz-delicate) tastes.

TRACK LISTING

1. INTO YOU
2. RIDGEWALK
3. GREEN LIGHT
4. BOND
5. GEMINI
6. TILL TOMORROW
7. APR4 SESSION (Take 2)
8. TRUST
9. PUSH
10. SHOW ME HOW
11. DEEP
12. THIS COULD BE THE END
13. WHIP.wav