In Hamburg, where she resettled after years of study in both Amsterdam and New York, she is valued as a guitarist who distinctly helps to shape the overall sound of an ensemble and who is acccomplished in the broad spectrum of contemporary jazz styles without having to recalibrate her musical compass. With her new quartet she has created a setting in which communicative musicality is boiled down to its essence: saxophonist Sebastian Gille is a sound ascetic who doesn't let a single note go without coloring to his own specifications; bassist Oliver Karstens provides the tonal foundation with an almost stoic and quiescent playing style while Roland Schneider on drums weaves a rhythmical net in which the movements and impulses of the individual musicians are transformed into joint, collective energy. In Hempel's compositions, the four musicians devise a game of deception made up of attraction and repulsion, proximity and distance, action and reaction, constantly opening new windows, perspectives, prospects - and invent new musical solutions for themselves far beyond any known clichés.