Composer and performer Joep Beving, one of the most listened-to living pianists in the world, is joining Deutsche Grammophon to release his new album ‘Prehension’ on 7th April.
Dutch musician Joep (pronounced ‘Yoop’) is a towering figure in the streaming world – and in real life too, thanks to his two-metre frame (nearly 6’10), wild hair and flowing beard. He has become a one-man success story – writing, recording and releasing his debut album ‘Solipsism’ (now available digitally on DG) which has been streamed nearly 60 million times.
Joep’s delicate melodies instantly struck a chord with listeners when tracks from the album first appeared on streaming music playlists alongside the likes of Max Richter, Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm.
“I call it ‘simple music for complex emotions’,” says Joep, summing up its universal appeal. “The world is a hectic place right now and I feel a deep urge to reconnect on a basic human level with people in general. Music as our universal language has the power to unite.”
Each track on ‘Solipsism’ was recorded at dead of night in the kitchen of his home in Amsterdam, while his partner and two young daughters slept, played on the German piano he had been left by his late grandmother.
Finally the music reached the ears of DG when a friend of Joep’s played the album in her local bar in Berlin – where one of the label’s executives happened to be – and ended up in a signing with the world’s foremost classical label.
The first fruits of the new partnership are ‘Prehension’. A natural successor to ‘Solipsism,’ it carries forward the musical and philosophical themes Joep identifies in his music. Understated, haunting and melancholic, its delicate melodies will help soothe the soul.

“Solipsism” is the debut album of composer and pianist Joep Beving. The title refers to the philosophical idea that reality only exists in one’s mind. Everything outside of it, the external world and the minds of others, cannot truly be known and hence does not exist. Beving’s music is an experiment in existential communication, a belief in an absolute aesthetic, to prove that a universal and metaphysical reality does exist.
Beving has been one with the piano from an early age. He was forced to end his musical studies at the conservatory and instead continued at university to get a degree in social sciences. However, his love for his instrument never perished. Where once his goal was to hit as many notes per minute as physically possible, his style of playing has changed over the years, searching for a particular aesthetic essence. His path was illuminated by a piano that Beving inherited from his grandmother when she passed away in 2009. This German instrument insisted on a more gentle touch and a gracious pace, which eventually led Beving to adapt to a more classical vocabulary to tell his story.
Joep Beving is a composer and musician, but to the international advertising community he is mostly known as the face of music agency MassiveMusic. After having worked on numerous national and international commercials over the past 10 years, it is time for Beving to let the music speak for himself. In the past year he has composed and recorded his first solo album at home in the still of night. The album is filled with introspective and often filmic piano compositions. Music stripped to its bare essentials, representing a quest for essence and beauty. His album titled “Solipsism” will be launched on Thursday the 19th of March, in the presence of a select audience in a unique location in the centre of Amsterdam.
The production and release of the album (digital & vinyl) is completely independent. The artwork concept and design were in the capable hands of none other than photographer and artist Rahi Rezvani.
Listen to the full album on Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/2Q31SUhxKncUHKEZIPjJV

Ludovico Maria Enrico Einaudi OMRI is an Italian pianist and composer. Trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan, Einaudi began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music.