Heine Hansen’s piano is playful, even bubbling and almost singing, like an early bird in the first days of spring. On his long awaited debut album, Hansen unfolds his signature sound on eleven new compositions of his own. Until now, he was best known as a sideman – modest, but highly respected as an elegant accompanist. In all probability Denmark’s most ethereal, swinging jazz pianist. A signature is something so personal it can’t be replicated; Heine Hansen plays the piano with a unique sense for applying rhythm and melody. With Thomas Fonnesbæk on bass and Alex Riel on drums, a truly beautiful symbiosis of eloquent melodies and precise playfulness emerges like rays of sunshine finding their way through green leaves. Music critic Christan Munch-Hansen writes: “Grooves in shades of green. Fresh and light-hearted – yet with the melancholy of autumn and winter beneath the surface, encoded in the weave. Small bittersweet melodies and impressionistic touches. Brief references to jazz history as well as the tonality of Scandinavian and European music.” Heine Hansen is a talent in his own league: This spring, he was awarded the Ben Webster Award of 2016. Heine Hansen will be performing with Riel and Fonnesbæk during Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2016. Signature underscores Hansen’s merits and connects Scandinavian simplicity with graceful warmth.