BETA Records - Your music matters!

The Masha Stepina piano trio consists of Masha Stepina( Russia) - piano
Wim Essed(Netherlands) - double bass
Soto Ntouvas(Greece) -drums
(Trio is based in The Netherlands)

They gathered for the first timein spring 2006.

Trio is working , not so much on changing , but looking deeper into possibilities of creating different musical strata and approaches in the traditional trio set up.

The trio performs original material from Masha's pen. When listening to her compositions one will experience a wealth of musical legacy as well as glimpses of things yet to come.
Besides the obvios jazz and pop connections there is a clear classic heritage;
one can detect influences from Bach to the great Late Romantic Russian composers like Skriabin and Rachmaninov . Just as well one could point at the unusual structures and sometimes special , but clear forms of the pieces,
the impressionistic and expressionistic ways of musical development and improvisations or the multi - layered and counterpointed way of interpretation.

The sound of the trio can thus vary from agitated and busy ( Modern Life) to stillness and restraint evocating a wide Russian Landscape in winter( January, White Spaces). Anyhow, the music has quite a bit of describing and colorful aspects and as such often feels like the soundtrack for an until now unmade movie. A movie that would clearly need some nostalgic and longing scenes to fit to the sound of the Masha Stepina piano trio.