Hannah Koob is a young Dutch-German top saxophonist who dedicates herself with immense energy to play unexplored repertoire for saxophone. "Die Fremde" is a musical expedition along music that has a gloomy but evermore cheerful timbre. Virtuoso solo playing in the rarely performed The Stranger by the Dutchman Hans Kox, this is only the 2nd studio recording of the piece, in which Koob shows the extreme limits of the melodic and dynamic range of her alto saxophone. Lyricism and fluent interplay between piano and saxophone in the Partita by Erwin Dressel and compelling harmonies and ditto melody in Henk Badings’ La Malinconia. Two commissioned compositions complete this energetic and infectious debut: the cinematic Andante by Leonard Küßner and Halvdager by Andreas van Zoelen, the latter in the beautiful, rarely heard combination of saxophone and harmonium. © 7 Mountain Records