Henosis is the final volume in a trilogy of albums by acclaimed neo-classical composer and pianist Joep Beving. The album marks the end of an intensely personal four-year spiritual and philosophical exploration. A new deluxe edition of Henosis, released in February 2020, includes solo piano versions of the works ‘Klangfall’, ‘Orvonton’, ‘Sol And Luna’ and ‘Shepherd’ which Joep recorded on his beloved Schimmel piano.
Stream Henosis now.
“This is my journey, and my search for understanding”
“This is my journey, and my search for understanding,” Beving explains. “I believe that the answers are much more on the inside. So this journey, in a way, is also an internal one. My hope is to give people a space to be in for a couple of minutes or hours where they feel things just seem to be right, like a recognition that they’re understood or that they can just be.”
Joep Beving has enjoyed almost unprecedented success in the contemporary classical music world. His first two albums Solipsism and Prehension have generated millions of streams worldwide, and Joep has toured extensively around the globe. His debut album Solipsism investigates the self and how we relate to the other with a shared understanding of what it is to be human. On Prehension, Beving musically describes the realisation that he had zoomed out from the individual level to the level of the collective. Henosis is the last step in this reflective journey, in which Beving’s destination is the vastness of the cosmos – that great, black void – in search of “ultimate reality and emptiness of the mind”.
The “most exciting and most versatile album” of his career
In 2019 Henosis won Joep Beving an Edison Award – an annual prize recognising outstanding achievement in the Dutch music industry – in the neo-classical category. The jury praised the album as the “most exciting and most versatile album” of his career so far, an “intense listening experience” that marked a “step forward” in his sound.
Joep Beving started composing in 2014 to battle his own growing sense of alienation, in the hope that his music would resonate with people and help us understand how interconnected we are. “We’re all part of one thing,” he noted. “And so we need to love ourselves, each other and this world we inhabit. Establishing connections as humans makes our species stronger.” Henosis does this and more; it represents a journey into the vastness of the cosmos, drifting ever higher until you forget you “are”.
2020 Australian Tour
Joep Beving lands is visiting Australia in March 2020 for a series of performance dates. Visit the promoter’s website for more information.
Saturday 7 March – Canberra Theatre Centre
Monday 9 March – The Studio @ Sydney Opera House
Wednesday 11 March – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Thursday 12 March – Adelaide Festival Centre