Whitelabrecs presents the debut album by pianist and composer Catherine Tang. She was born in Basel, Switzerland to a Serbian mother and Chinese father, and her music reflects this richly varied cultural background. Beginning with classical piano at the age of four, Catherine later discovered Jazz in her teens, a path that led to studies at the Jazzcampus in Basel where she completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Catherine has since established herself as an active presence within the Swiss Jazz scene, performing at major festivals including Montreux Jazz Festival, Gurtenfestival and Offbeat Jazz Festival. Beyond her role as a pianist and composer, she is also bandleader of the quintet ASRA, whose debut album Nocturnal Journey was released by Berlin’s XJAZZ! Music.
Catherine’s work is characterised by an emotional sensitivity to atmosphere and texture, inspired by her surroundings and daily life. Speaking about her process, she explains: “I draw inspiration from the people and everyday moments around me. Simple melodies often come to me through my voice - it’s my way of capturing fleeting ideas and emotions. My approach to composing is very emotional; I need to live and experience things deeply before I can translate them into music. For me, music is a way to process life, to turn raw emotions and experiences into something tangible and meaningful.”
‘Where Do Your Dreams Fly?’ marks Catherine’s first solo release under her own name. Recorded at CopShop studio in Berlin over three days with producer Michael Haves, the sessions centred around an old upright piano which imbued its warm and intimate character throughout the record. Rather than polishing away imperfections, Catherine embraced the mechanical noises of the piano and even the creak of the chair, giving the listener a sense of being present in the room. Additional layers came from expressive synthesizers including the Osmose, Moog Grandmother and Prophet Rev2, carefully woven into the arrangements to expand the depth of the recordings without losing their human touch.
The title was inspired by a line encountered in Shirley Horn’s ‘I Watch You Sleep’ which became the album’s guiding theme. For Catherine, Where Do Your Dreams Fly? is about letting go of self-doubt and external expectations, allowing the music to follow its own path. That openness also found its way into the recording process; the album’s closing piece ‘Nocturnal Returnal’ was captured spontaneously in a final take at the end of the session. It may have been completely unplanned but it became one of Catherine’s favourite pieces for its raw honesty.
Dreamy, textural and immersive, this debut showcases the full extent of Catherine’s deeply personal artistry. It invites the listener into an intimate space that balances fragility with expansiveness, whilst quietly posing a central, open-ended question: where might your own dreams take you, if you were given the freedom to fly?
