Under the Same Stars Shuteen Erdenebaatar & Nils Kugelmann

• 1 Mirror Under Water 04:53
• 2 Train to the Past 04:16
• 3 Tiny Wonders 02:38
• 4 Mystery of the Woods 04:50
• 5 Whispers Beyond Time 03:43
• 6 Stars Among Us 04:11
• 7 What Will Remain 03:40
• 8 Desert Dream 03:25
• 9 Maybe the Clouds 05:10
• 10 Road Ahead 03:21
• Total Runtime 40:07

Info for Under the Same Stars

Following her internationally acclaimed and multi-award-winning 2023 debut, Rising Sun, pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar returns with Under the Same Stars—an exquisite duo album with the rising ACT Music artist Nils Kugelmann on contra-alto clarinet and upright bass. Meditative, romantic, and daring, this duo paints poetic miniatures with strokes of jazz, classical, and cinematic music. Alto Recorder and Mongolian horsehead fiddle features add soulful mystery.

Shuteen Erdenebaatar, piano
Nils Kugelmann, contra-alto clarinet; double bass (tracks 3, 6 & 10)
Jakob Manz, alto recorder (track 5)
Dalaijargal Daansuren, morin khuur (Mongolian horsehead fiddle) (track 7)

Shuteen Erdenebaatar
Born and raised in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, Shuteen Erdenebaatar began her musical career as a classical pianist. At the age of 16, she discovered jazz and immediately realized that this was her path. Since there were no opportunities to pursue this path in her home country, she first completed her bachelor's degree in classical composition and then moved to Munich in 2018 to pursue a double master's degree in jazz piano and jazz composition. There, she gradually found her own musical voice—rooted in her love of classical music, elevated by the freedom and interplay of jazz, and shaped by the colors and vastness of her Mongolian homeland.

Shortly after graduating, Shuteen Erdenebaatar released her debut album, Rising Sun, on the renowned American label Motéma Music in September 2023. The album garnered international acclaim, and the press subsequently hailed her as one of the most promising rising stars of the European jazz scene. Audiences celebrated her equally, leading to numerous sold-out concerts in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Romania, China, Mongolia, and Iceland. Her music has been invited to perform at major European festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Jazzahead!, Jazz Baltica, Grachtenfestival, Reykjavik Jazz Festival, and Rockit Festival.

In her young career, Shuteen has already received numerous awards, including the prestigious 2024 German Jazz Award as "Ensemble of the Year" for her quartet and a nomination for "Pianist of the Year." In 2024, she also became the first jazz artist ever to receive the "Mungun Mod," Mongolia's highest cultural award. Other honors include the BMW Young Artist Jazz Award, the Music Prize of the City of Munich, the Composition Prize of the Biberach Jazz Prize, and first prizes at the Young Munich Jazz Award, the Kurt Maas Jazz Award, and the Creative Music Award.

Shuteen Erdenebaatar currently leads three innovative projects: an energetic jazz quartet, an exquisite piano and contralto clarinet duo with the highly acclaimed ACT artist Nils Kugelmann, and a 20-piece, classically inspired, and uniquely instrumented chamber jazz orchestra. The recordings of these ensembles form an album trilogy released by Motéma Music.

As a composer, she has also received commissions from chamber music ensembles such as the Arcis Saxophone Quartet, the Munich Composers Collective, the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, as well as Mongolia's most important orchestras, including the Mongolian State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Mongolian State Opera.

Nils Kugelmann
born in Munich in 1996, discovered music at a young age. He began with the recorder, soon followed by piano, clarinet, and bass. At 11, he wrote his first clarinet composition, at 15, his first piece for big band, and at 18, his first works for orchestra and two musicals. These premiered under his direction in venues including the Herkulesaal of the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace, the Wagenhalle, and the Gasteig in Munich.

After graduating from the Pestalozzi-Gymnasium in 2015, he studied jazz double bass with Henning Sieverts at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 2020 and a master's degree in 2022. During this time, Kugelmann already attracted attention as a sideman in various projects. He has performed with the Benny Golson Quartet, Trio Elf, Jazzrausch Big Band, and Johannes Enders, among others.

Since 2022, Kugelmann has been touring increasingly with his own project – the Nils Kugelmann Trio. Concert tours have taken his band to many clubs and festivals in Germany and beyond in recent years. His debut album, "Stormy Beauty," was released in June 2023 on the ACT label and was nominated for the "German Record Critics' Award." The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "A brilliant album from one of the most versatile musicians in this country." In addition to double bass, Kugelmann also plays contra-alto clarinet in the duo "Shuteen Erdenebaatar & Nils Kugelmann" (Biberach Jazz Prize) and piano in the duo "Wolfgruber Kugelmann."

In addition to winning first prize at the "European Young Artist Jazz Award Burghausen 2023" with his trio and several awards at the "Biberach Jazz Prize," the "Bavarian Jazz Association's Promotional Prize," and the "Future Sounds Competition" in Leverkusen, Kugelmann was honored for his work as a composer and musician with the "Music Scholarship of the City of Munich" and the "BMW Young Artist Jazz Award."

Kugelmann's long-awaited second album, "Life Score" (ACT), was released on April 25, 2025.

This album contains no booklet.