Stay Now

The famous compliation "Magic Moments", curated by Siggi LochTracklist: 01 Elevation of Love // Album: e.s.t. 30 Magnus Öström, Dan Berglund, Magnus Lindgren, Joel Lyssarides, Verneri Pohjola, Ulf Wakenius 02 Second Nature // Album: Life Rhythm Wolfgang Haffner03 Raw // Album: raw Nils Landgren Funk Unit 04 The Answer // Album: The Answer Jakob Manz 05 Shots // Album: Bloom Bill Laurance 06 Das Handtuch // Album: Tough Stuff Iiro Rantala 07 She’ll Arrive Between 10 & 11 // Album: Guitar PoetryMikael Máni 08 Terrible Seeds // Album: While You Wait Little North 09 Se Telefonando // Album: Ennio Grégoire Maret, Romain Collin 10 Wonderland // Album: Wonderland Daniel García Trio 11 Fresu // Album: Inner Spirits Jan Lundgren, Yamandu Costa 12 Hands Off // Album: Stealing Moments Viktoria Tolstoy 13 Hidden Prelude // Album: What the Fugue Florian Willeitner 14 Pralin // Album: Let Them Cook Emile Parisien 15 My Brother Rolf // Album: Komeda Joachim Kühn 16 Passacaglia // Album: Passacaglia Adam Bałdych, Leszek Możdżer 17 Linden Tree Rag // Album: Rag Bag Bernd Lhotzky 18 Zafeirious Solo // Album: Arcs & Rivers Joel Lyssarides, Georgios Prokopiou

Joel Lyssarides - Arcs & RiversCD / Vinyl / digital Joel Lyssarides piano Georgios Prokopiou bouzouki Exactly when and how the long neck lute ‘bouzouki’ first landed in Greece remains a mystery. Its roots go back to the fourth century before Christ. Named after the “Βυζί“, the Greek word for female breast, the current form of the instrument is relatively young and has been all over Athens and the Peloponnese since around 1920. Initially at home in bars, parties and festivals; it certainly played its part in the revival of the ‘rebetiko’, often referred to ‘the Greek blues’ from the 1960s onwards. ‘Back in the early days there was a lot of improvisation, much more than in recent times...’ says Georgios Prokopiou, ‘because from the fifties onwards, the bouzouki was taught. And that's when so many more things about it became tied down and standardised’. Since that time, the metallic sound of the instrument has become almost synonymous with Greek folklore as the accompaniment for songs and dances...notably with composer Mikis Theodorakis, the source of more than a few ear-worms.Until now, the bouzouki has never got out of the starting gates as a jazz instrument. That, however, is about to change, but it needed a detour via Stockholm. ‘The links and connections aren’t obvious’ says pianist Joel Lyssarides, ‘but they stem from my grandfather, a Greek Cypriot, who came to Sweden in the 1940s. I always liked Greek music, but didn't really know it very well. In any case, I have always found the bouzouki fascinating. During the pandemic I bought myself an instrument and started learning it a bit. While browsing the internet I discovered Georgios from a concert on TV in tribute to Theodorakis. So I asked around in Stockholm if anyone knew him, only to discover that he would be playing a concert in a nearby hotel bar just a few days later.’ That happened in the autumn of 2022. Joel Lyssarides went and heard Georgios Prokopiou playing live, spoke to him afterwards, and they arranged to meet for a session. They jammed together, quickly found that they got on well, and in the summer of 2023 got themselves a booking to give their first concert together. ‘It is very unusual for someone to improvise over changes with the bouzouki,’ Joel Lyssarides continues. ‘After all, it is a traditional instrument with a clearly defined role, mostly accompaniment with parallel thirds and sixths. Georgios, however, does much, much more than that. I had no idea how good he really is. His versatility opens many doors musically. We had a lot of fun opening up new possibilities right from the start. And since I had never heard anyone play bouzouki like that before, I knew that I absolutely had to write some music for it’. Lyssarides also told ACT head and producer Andreas Brandis about the idea for the duo, and he was immediately supportive and enthusiastic: ‘ACT's way of thinking is that the term ‘jazz’ primarily stands for a vocabulary that musicians can use to tell their story against their own personal cultural backdrop. It is fascinating that formations keep emerging that never existed before. And the music that Joel Lyssarides and Giorgios Prokopiou create together is, on the one hand, absolutely surprising and new, but at the same time sounds so organic and natural, as if this combination of instruments had existed forever.’ And, of course, it is not just the instruments – piano and bouzouki – which have come together, but also the individual characters and musical histories of each of the duo partners. Joel Lyssarides from Stockholm combines great virtuosity with impressive ease and a strong sense of mood and dynamics. He has performed with artists as diverse as Anne Sofie von Otter, Benny Anderson, Nils Landgren, Viktoria Tolstoy and recently been part of the Esbjörn Svensson tribute "e.s.t. 30". Since its release in 2022, Lyssarides' ACT debut album "Stay Now" has been played an impressive 25 million times on Spotify alone. Georgios Prokopiou, originally from Athens who now makes his home in Stockholm, began playing bouzouki at the age of six and a half, made his concert debut at the age of eight and by the time he was ten was doing music engagements in the bars and “studios” (brothels) of Athens. Since then he has worked in classical contexts as well as in folk and experimental music. In addition to the bouzouki, he also plays the saz or bağlama, plus a range of other stringed instruments. Lyssarides and Prokopiou chose to cast their net as widely as possible for the material in ‘Arcs & Rivers’. After a rehearsal concert at the ACT Art Collection in Berlin – from which one live track, ‘Zafeirious Solo’, was included in the album – the two of them met again at the same location to record the rest with studio equipment in place. ‘For example, we wanted to include quiet parts, miked up close. We also wanted to capture the great sound of the grand piano which was originally selected by Alfred Brendel. Overall, however, there was a lot which was very spontaneous. The whole album was recorded at one session, within four hours, mostly with first takes. I'm usually a perfectionist and spend days reworking and editing music in the studio. This time, however, I wanted it to be as direct and in-the-moment as possible.’ And it has worked. ‘Arcs & Rivers’ is like a sketchbook containing dialogues which – considering it is a first time venture – sets a bar for achievement very high indeed. Both in the new compositions and in the adaptations of traditional material – as in ‘Kamilieriko Road’ – this music has a dazzling, magical sound. And the duo itself radiates a naturalness of cultural fusion that transcends any stylistic constraints. It seems that indeed the time is right for more bouzouki in jazz, and for its unique sound to be heard by the international music world. Credits: Produced by Joel Lyssarides, Georgios Prokopiou and Andreas Brandis Recorded by Thomas Schöttl at the ACT Gallery in Berlin, Germany, on 29 - 30 April 2024 Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann The Art in Music: Cover art „Landschaft 1994“ (Detail) created by Manfred Bockelmann

Magnus Öström - e.s.t. 30CD / Vinyl / digital Magnus Öström drums Dan Berglund double bass Magnus Lindgren tenor saxophone, flute Joel Lyssarides piano Verneri Pohjola trumpet Ulf Wakenius electric guitar Love remains... In 1993, three musicians from Sweden, Esbjörn Svensson, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström formed the band e.s.t.. Svensson and Öström had known each other ever since their first steps into music as children. Neither of them could have anticipated that e.s.t. would become the most influential band in European jazz of the noughties. And when the band formed they probably didn't think they were particularly ‘jazz’ either; all they wanted to do was to play the music which united their passions: rock, pop, classical, folk, improvisation. In the following 15 years, e.s.t. would play thousands of concerts worldwide, release ten studio albums and several live recordings, win awards, gold discs. We all know how the story ends. Or did it really end? And will it ever end? To mark the 30th anniversary of e.s.t., Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund combined forces with close musical friends Joel Lyssarides, Magnus Lindgren, Verneri Pohjola and Ulf Wakenius to give two major concerts, one at the Kölner Philharmonie and other at the Filadelfia church in Stockholm. They played a selection of quintessential pieces from the timeless e.s.t. repertoire, but in a way that has never been heard before. The six musicians, each one a solo artist of international renown, treat the original melodic and rhythmic contours of these tunes with tenderness and affection. The iconic melodies and rhythms are all there, but we also hear how they are opened up again and again, as the musicians immerse them in unexpected warmth and light. These players react to each other in fascinating ways, and there is also a definite tingle in the air as the audience listens to the music in pin-drop silence, then bursts into uninhibited applause atthe end. Magnus Öström reflects on how it feels to play this music today: “The emotions we experience have many layers, the depth of a lifetime. Firstly, it feels like coming home. There is sadness, gratitude, and happiness. And it seems unreal or even surreal and ever so natural at the same time. And you can't stop marvelling at how great this music is. Esbjörn’s compositions and the arrangements that we did together as a trio back then, feel timeless.” And he concludes: “In the end, what remains above all is the conviction that this music should be played and not lying around in a drawer.”“e.s.t. 30” zooms in from the widest of panoramas to the intimacy of the close-up. And from the total silence and weightlessness of space in the opener "From Gagarin's Point Of View" to the heartfelt sincerity of the final track "Believe, Beleft, Below", or as it is called in the later version with vocals: "Love is Real". “If we meet again, I'd tell you how I feel, I'd tell you from the start, I'd tell you love is real.” Love remains.

Victoria Tolstoy - Stealing MomentsCD / Vinyl / digital Viktoria Tolstoy vocals Joel Lyssarides piano & keys Krister Jonsson guitar Mattias Svensson bass Rasmus Kihlberg drums & percussion Viktoria Tolstoy's ACT debut album, "Shining On You" from 2004, can now be seen as a defining moment, marking the beginning of the continuing success story of popular jazz voices from Scandinavia. The music was written by Esbjörn Svensson, who also formed the core band together with Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström and was soon to become world-famous as "e.s.t.". The album, produced by Nils Landgren, was also a gath-ering of the ACT family of artists - also in its infancy back then - who joined the session as guests.Exactly 20 years later, in "Stealing Moments", Viktoria Tolstoy has once again taken up the idea of “the family" making music together. The compositions are by a whole host of current ACT artists, many of whom had an involvement in "Shining on You". It includes "Hands Off", originally an instrumental composition by the late Esbjörn Svensson; Svensson's widow Eva has written a very fine new lyric for it. Long-time friends and companions - Nils Landgren, Ida Sand, Wolfgang Haffner, Cæcilie Norby, Lars Danielsson, Iiro Rantala and Jan Lundgren - have all written new music specifically with Tolstoy and her voice in mind. "When you sing, the sun rises," Pat Metheny once told Viktoria Tolstoy. The thread which unifies all the tracks on "Stealing Moments" is her strong, crystal clear voice, together with her temperament, in which lightness and coruscating energy always irresistibly co-exist. Listeners are going to enjoy this music as much as she does...and she knows it. Or as she says, subtly re-forming the words of the album title into an implicit invitation: "Let me steal a little bit of time to listen." Credits: Produced by the artist

Various Artists - Magic Moments 15: In the Spirit of JazzCD / digitalBest jazz infotainment for the 30th anniversary of ACT: 16 tracks, 65 minutes of music in the spirit of jazz, featuring artists like Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien & Theo Croker, Iiro Rantala, Vincent Peirani Trio, Michael Wollny Trio, Joel Lyssarides, Jakob Manz & Johanna Summer, and more.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Joel Lyssarides - Stay NowCD / Vinyl / digital Joel Lyssarides piano Niklas Fernqvist bass Rasmus Blixt drums Joel Lyssarides is Sweden’s rising piano star of the moment. And whereas awareness of him beyond Sweden’s borders may still be restricted to assiduous followers of the scene, his listening figures speak for themselves. Recordings by the pianist, born in 1992, are already among the most listened to in European jazz; on Spotify alone he has reached well over 50 million plays. And yet these huge numbers are not the result of any calculation, audience targeting or 'crowd-pleasing' on the pianist's part. He explains: “As happy as I am that a lot of people obviously like my music a lot and want to listen to it again and again, the creative impulse always comes from within me. Me and my piano, they’re at the centre of my musical world.” His ACT debut “Stay Now”, Joel Lyssarides’ third album, is a dazzling and vivid insight into that world. One thing is abundantly clear: the time has arrived for Lyssarides to step out onto the international stage. Joel Lyssarides is not yet thirty, and so the things he has already achieved musically are quite staggering: he has played countless concerts either solo or with his trio; he has collaborated with jazz, classical, blues and pop artists such as trombonist Nils Landgren and singer Viktoria Tolstoy, including her current album “Stations”... But he has also worked with YouTube phenomenon “Dirty Loops”, and with the great Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. And despite Joel Lyssarides’ evident and impressive versatility and adaptability, jazz is at the very core of his work. The initial spark came from records by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk and others which were played in his Swedish-Greek parents' home. Thereafter came the music of Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Lyssarides studied music in Stockholm and Rome, and it was not long before recognition came in the form of numerous national and international jazz prizes. In just under ten years, Joel Lyssarides has received almost twenty of them, notably the Swedish Society of Composers’ Prize, the Bengt Säve-Söderbergh Award, the “Jan Wallander Award” and, in 2019 at only 26 years of age, Musician of the Year from Swedish Radio.  For Joel Lyssarides jazz is above all a language, a tool for uniquely personal expression. He composed the pieces for “Stay Now” in a remote house in the forest, a good half-hour outside Stockholm. And by preference at night, in silence, darkness and deep concentration. The atmosphere of this place is audibly reflected in the music, which is strongly influenced by space, sound and mood - reinforced by the highly concentrated, differentiated, subtle interplay of pianist Lyssarides with bassist Niklas Fernqvist and drummer Rasmus Blixt. The Swedish magazine “Lira” states: “Even though the concept of jazz is a very extensive one, it is too narrow of a description for the music of this trio.” What these three young musicians have in common is their capacity for great sensitivity and expressiveness. Their music is based on a vocabulary that draws equally from European classical music, jazz from both sides of the Atlantic and great songwriting, with all its depth and accessibility. And yet this has nothing to do with crossover. Everything flows and swings, nothing seems deliberate or contrived, one can hear a natural understanding for the infinite possibilities of every note. This trio has the self-confidence to put the entirety of their efforts into enhancing the expressiveness of the music.  And it is in the most intimate, quiet, focused and concentrated moments that the most spectacular things happen. The album title “Stay Now”, therefore, is above all an acknowledgement of quite how precious the here and now is. These are the moments when we start to understand the true value of present and past encounters. As we listen, we can let the moment linger… and allow ourselves to sink blissfully and unforgettably into it. Credits: Produced by Joel Lyssarides Recorded by Joar Hallgren at Nilento Studio, Gothenburg, September 7-8, 2021 Sound design, mix and mastering by Lars Nilsson Cover art by Manfred Bockelmann

Various Artists - Magic Moments 13CD / digitalBest Jazzinfotainment: 16 tracks, 75 minutes of music in the Spirit of Jazz, including Nils Landgren & Jan Lundgren, Wolfgang Haffner,Ulf Wakenius, Solveig Slettahjell, Grégoire Maret, Vincent Peirani & Emile Parisien, Kadri Voorand, Viktoria Tolstoy, Jazzrausch Bigband.Credits: Compilation by Siggi Loch Mastered by Klaus Scheuermann

Viktoria Tolstoy - StationsCD / digital Viktoria Tolstoy vocals Joel Lyssarides piano Krister Jonsson guitar Mattias Svensson bass Rasmus Kihlberg drums When Viktoria Tolstoy sings, it is her personal background, the things that have made her who she is, that resonate above all. Her choice of songs is rooted in her own experience, whether it be a deep attach-ment to her native country ("My Swedish Heart"), the quest for her Russian heritage – she is the great-great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy – ("My Russian Soul"), a desire to pay an affectionate tribute to Herbie Hancock ("Letters To Herbie"), or to interpret great film songs ("Meet Me At The Movies"). These thematic threads give Viktoria Tolstoy a way of singing songs which is hers and hers alone. And her voice has something truly special and individual too: there might be a hint of melodrama, or perhaps a certain sadness which is nonetheless underpinned with joy, or happiness, yet with an urgent and dramatic undertone. This innate sense of how to establish an emotio-nal connection also helps to explain why Tolstoy has become one of the most successful singers in jazz from Scandinavia. Her new album “Stations" once again has its origins in her own lifestory: "It's about travelling from station to station, as happens in my life as a musician,” she explains. “But it's not just about being physically on the move, it's also about how the mind travels through both space and time. There are old songs and new songs, plus originals created especially for this album and related to its theme. How the listener chooses to interpret these musical journeys is entirely up to him or her." For the most part we find Tolstoy travelling across two continents and through two time-periods. For one of these routes, she shares the journey with fellow Scandinavians: the album sets off on its vo-yage energetically with "I Should Run" by Ida Sand; then follows the profoundly enigmatic title track, by Stina Nordenstam; Tolstoy then takes on Nils Eriksson's "Land Of The Humble", with lyrics by Anna Alerstedt who is a frequent collaborator. Taking the guiding idea of visiting a few cities gives scope to roam further: "The Streets Of Berlin" is based on the original song by another stalwart, Sinne Eeg. And the other route leads Tolstoy back to the standards: "They are my core," she explains. "The standards are where everything comes from. You can take excursions from them into more modern sounds," explains Tolstoy. And naturally, she also has in mind the famous interpreters of these classic songs from the past who have inspired her to venture forth on her own journey. “The Old Country was a song I heard for the first time sung by Nancy Wilson, and I was so inspired, I've been singing it ever since. For 25 years! But because I've never recorded it before, I came to the conclusion that this particular car has now spent long enough parked in a garage, it’s time to take it out on the open road." There are other decisive moments from her life here, such as "The Great City", also made famous by Nancy Wilson, or Bob Dylan's "Million Miles" or Shirley Horn's signature song "Here's To Life". "This song is just so fantastic, it seemed to me the perfect ending, a means to come full circle so to speak. A salute to life as I live it, and to all of the "Stations" along the way."On this album, Tolstoy also has a new travelling companion whose presence marks the continuation of another tradition in Tolstoy’s recordings, which is that she works with outstanding pianists. In the past, musicians such as Esbjörn Svensson and Jacob Karlzon have accompanied her, and on “Stations” Joel Lyssarides joins this illustrious lineage. Aged just 27, Lyssarides is already a rising star in Sweden. After his studies in jazz and classical music in Stockholm and Rome, he has worked with major figures such as Anne Sofie Von Otter, Nils Landgren, Sven Bertil Taube and Kristin Amparo. He also done arrangements for ABBA legend Benny Andersson for various big bands, choirs and string quartets. Two years ago he released a highly-acclaimed debut album combining his classical background with Swedish folk music and jazz. "Joel is probably the biggest up-and-coming talent in Sweden right now,” says Tolstoy, “so it's great to have him on board. His 'big ears' musically make him just the right person for this project. He also makes us all feel younger. And he plays in perfect accord with my guitarist Krister Jonsson; they both leave plenty of space and know instinctively how to find each other, which is so rare with piano-plus-guitar." In fact, Tolstoy's band, which also involves Mattias Svensson on bass and Rasmus Kihlberg on drums, sounds like a truly unified entity. And that certainly made the work easier for the producer. His name, as has been the case for many years now…is Nils Landgren. "It's hard for me to imagine making an album now without him," says Tolstoy. "We are such good friends and we work so intuitively together, we're just a winning team." The itinerary they have taken together through “Stations” sometimes picks up some real speed, there are occasions when it gets truly emotional, but with such communicative power throughout, this is a highly satisfying journey for which no listener is going to want to get left behind.Credits: Recorded by Michael Dahlvid, May 29 - 30, 2019 at Nilento Studio, Gothenburg Mixed and mastered by Lars Nilsson at Nilento Studio Produced by Nils Landgren