"Jazz album of the month" - "Hülsmann, who has been releasing subtle ECM gems with trio partners Marc Muellbauer and Heinrich Köbberling on bass and drums for a decade, has now added traditional-to-freeblasting Berlin tenor saxophonist Uli Kempendorff ...The set's only cover is David Bowie's This Is Not America, with Kempendorff taking a group version from stealthy insinuation to confrontational split-note wailing, and Hülsmann developing an unaccompanied account as plaintive harmony-shifts against a solemnly tapping repeated note. Sometimes it feels like the 1950s Cool School and Miles Davis's mid-60s group have become conjoined (notably on Muellbauer's zigzagging Le Mistral); Hülsmann's title track is a gently enigmatic sax/piano theme over a soft bass vamp. There are also tender ballads, drum-pattern riddles that turn into swing, and Muellbauer's Wrong Song is a film noir-like harmony that becomes a sax turmoil. It's clever, thoughtful, inquisitively contemporary jazzmaking"

"There is no outrage, no anger. In its whispered sadness and softly presented melancholy - as if the worst has already happened - what remains is a simple declarative melody surrounded by silence. Kempendorff's horn adds depth, dimension, dynamic, and expanded harmonic capabilities to Hülsmann's trio on Not Far from Here. Her ability to seamlessly incorporate these possibilities, inspire her bandmates to write according to them, and strip away all that is unnecessary is masterful, making this album a gem"