Just a few years into his career, Christoph Zimper found himself the solo clarinetist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, and in great demand as an orchestra and chamber musician. In 2018, he decided to leave the orchestral jobs behind and find out how to express existential matters – like an “intensely perceived moment”, for example, “that may look perfectly unremarkable from the outside” – in a musical language of his own. Or how one might use musical means to get Millennials – to which he belongs himself – to ponder the eternal questions of life. Here now is Zimper’s fascinating debut album as a composer, for which he has asked a selection of hand-picked soloists, the Eggner-Trio, and the group Plattform K+K Vienna to join him in the studio. © col legno