Yannis Despotakis — drums, sruti box, voice

Yannis Despotakis. Born (naturally) in Athens, Greece. His roots lie in the triangle connecting Piraeus, Crete, and Istanbul (also known as Constantinople). From a young age he showed great enthusiasm for hitting and hammering all kinds of surfaces, after discovering a pair of chopsticks in his mother's kitchen. He has received workshops and lessons from many remarkable people, each of whom has played a catalyzing role in his ongoing path of self-discovery. He always tries — and mostly succeeds — not to be forced into doing things he doesn't want to do. He feels his soul stays healthy by figuring out what he truly wants, because that IS it. He believes one of the things that has radically helped his psychosynthesis is his engagement with traditional Mongolian overtone singing (also known as Khoomei) over the past twelve years, as it cleanses and crystallizes all inner energy channels (also known as chakras). He cooks every day, and very well. In 2007 he met the remarkable Hayden Chisholm (NZ), and the fall down the rabbit hole began. Since 2009, Hayden and Yiannis have worked intensively together. The flame still burns, and the rabbit hole keeps getting deeper.

David Soyza — vibraphone

David Soyza (vibraphone, composition, voice) was born in 1994 in Hall in Tirol and grew up in Dornbirn, Austria. He gained his first musical experience in various choirs and orchestras, including under Oskar Egle and Guntram Simma. During his school years, he had the opportunity to receive a broad musical foundation through lessons and workshops with Florian King, Herbert Walser-Breuß, Wolfgang Lindner, Flip Philipp, Peter Madsen, Charly Bonat, and Didi Konzett — a foundation that shaped his musical path. After graduating from the music-focused Gymnasium in Feldkirch, he began his Bachelor's studies at the Nuremberg University of Music in October 2014 under Roland Neffe. Alongside his main subject, David also studied with Klaus Graf, Steffen Schorn, Silke Straub, and Reinette van Zijtveld-Lustig. Among many workshops and private lessons with various teachers, an Erasmus semester with Jeffery Davis in Porto and a three-day workshop with Sullivan Fortner were especially inspiring and formative for his artistic development. He completed his artistic-pedagogical studies in Nuremberg in summer 2019. Since October 2019, he has studied at the Jazz Institute Berlin under Julius Heise. In autumn 2017, David received the DAAD Prize from the Nuremberg University of Music. He was also awarded the Vorarlberg Cultural Prize in the Jazz category together with Veronika Morscher, Fabio Devigili, Andreas Broger, Benjamin Omerzell, Johannes Bär, and Martin Grabher. In December 2019, David received the Patho Foundation's music education prize — unique in Germany — for outstanding achievement in his studies at the Nuremberg University of Music. David lives in Berlin and works as an instrumentalist, composer, and singer on various projects in Germany and Austria.

www.davidsoyza.com

Lisa Hoppe — double bass, voice, composition, concept

Lisa Hoppe is a double bassist, composer, and improviser based in Berlin. Her musical work spans a wide range of genres and non-genres: between free improvisation, jazz in all its forms, modern chamber music, and chanson, she constantly seeks to place the melodic qualities of the double bass in a contemporary context. She writes for music theatre and works with various projects in Germany and Switzerland. Her album "Faking An Imperfect Utopia" with her band YSOP was nominated for the German Jazz Prize in 2024.

www.lisa-hoppe.com