With his neoclassical and minimalist piano compositions, Wouter Dewit   has long been recognized alongside celebrated names like Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, and Joep Beving. For his latest album, he challenged himself—and his audience—by recording a single, 50-minute piece. Hold also marks the conclusion of a trilogy, following Still (2017) and Here (2019). 
 

The seeds for Hold were sown over five years ago, even before the global pandemic took hold. “I was simply continuing my work after Still and Here,” Dewit explains. “The idea of playing one continuous 50-minute track came early on, partly out of stubbornness—to see if I could pull it off. One weekend in 2020, I played the piano in a single take, without looking at the clock, including the inevitable small imperfections that come with playing for so long. Later, we added bass, drums, strings, and electronics. But the piano line remained the untouched canvas I didn’t want to alter.” 

Quite literally, too. Hold was shelved for a while as Dewit—partly due to successive lockdowns—focused on solo projects. He released two EPs, A Place I Need To Be and Four Songs, and composed film scores, including music for the French movie Sur Les Chemins Noirs starring Jean Dujardin. Eventually, he revisited Hold with producer Joris Peeters. Yet the album almost didn’t see the light of day. “I wondered: does this really belong in the trilogy? It sounded so different from the first two albums, which were darker, less playful. Hold feels warmer, with fewer of the autumnal tones of Still and Here.” 

His hesitation to continue was also tied to seeing Hold as a time capsule. Years after laying down the initial strokes on the canvas, Dewit felt somewhat estranged from it. “But when we listened to it again, it moved us. We let go of what it had meant to us back then. The title Hold turned out to be prophetic. It’s the opposite of letting go, but to hold onto it, I had to let go many times. That tension was what I wanted to explore.”
 

Letting go also shaped the album’s creation process. “I made Still almost entirely on my own, working in a cocoon with Joris as producer. For Here, I allowed more people and opinions into the process. And now, with Hold, I opened it up completely. The string arrangements, for example, were co-created with Roel Das. I’ve realized that I’m more willing to relinquish control, and this journey from isolation to openness has been important for me.” 

An album with a single track, split into two 25-minute parts for vinyl, is hardly a conventional commercial move, Dewit acknowledges. “When the vinyl format split it into two parts, it turned out to work surprisingly well. I enjoy those kinds of serendipities.” A fun fact: both Still and Here also run exactly 50 minutes. “This is the first time I’m asking so much from the listener. It demanded a lot from me too, but it was something I had to do at least once.” 

To cater to radio and streaming platforms, Dewit extracted three segments from the album to release as singles. “I didn’t just cut random pieces from the album—that would’ve been unfair to the work. Instead, I took three musical motifs and developed them into standalone pieces. They’re pure piano, between 3 and 5 minutes long, designed to be enjoyed independently. Those motifs also appear in the full album but are transformed—with strings, electronics, or a different pace and structure.” 

The hope and warmth in the music are echoed in the album cover. Like Still and Here, the artwork was created by artist Bart Slangen. But while those covers featured dark, almost monochromatic autumnal imagery, this one glows with golden hues behind the trees. “As I was finishing the album, I sometimes wondered whether it still had a place in today’s world: an album imbued with hope. Was it too naïve for the times we’re living in? But in the end, I did what I always do: I followed the music. And I realized again that the final result is no longer mine—it’s beyond my control. I’ve held onto it long enough. It’s time to let go.” 
 

Starting in late March, Dewit will perform in a quartet featuring Martijn Van Buel on double bass, Tine Anthonis on cello, and Beatrijs De Klerck on violin.

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