Yannis Despotakis — drums, sruti box, vocals

Yannis Despotakis. Born (in the natural way) in Athens/Greece. His roots lie in the triangle connecting Piraeus, Crete and Istanbul (a.k.a. Constantinople). From a young age he showed great enthusiasm for striking and hammering on all manner of surfaces, discovered with a pair of chopsticks in his mother's kitchen. He has received workshops and instruction from many remarkable people, each of whom played a catalysing role on his path of self-discovery so far. 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 finding out what he truly wants, because that IS it. He believes that one of the things that has radically helped his psychosynthesis is his engagement with traditional Mongolian singing (a.k.a. overtone singing – Khoomei) over the past twelve years, because it cleanses and crystallises all inner energy channels (a.k.a. chakras). He cooks every day, and very well. In 2007 he met the remarkable Hayden Chisholm (Nzl), and the fall down the rabbit hole began. Since 2009, Hayden and Yiannis have worked closely together. The flame still burns, and the rabbit hole keeps getting deeper.

David Soyza — vibraphone

David Soyza (vibraphone, composition, vocals) 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, laying the groundwork for his musical career. After graduating from the Musikgymnasium in Feldkirch, he began his Bachelor's degree in October 2014 at the Nuremberg University of Music under Roland Neffe. Alongside his main subject, David also studied with Klaus Graf, Steffen Schorn, Silke Straub and Reinette van Zijtveld-Lustig. Among numerous workshops and private lessons with various instructors, an Erasmus semester with Jeffery Davis in Porto and a three-day workshop with Sullivan Fortner were especially inspiring and formative for his further artistic development. In summer 2019 he completed his artistic-pedagogical degree in Nuremberg. Since October 2019 he has studied at the Jazz Institute Berlin under Julius Heise. In autumn 2017 David received the DAAD Prize of the HfM Nuremberg. He was also awarded, together with Veronika Morscher, Fabio Devigili, Andreas Broger, Benjamin Omerzell, Johannes Bär and Martin Grabher, the Culture Prize of the State of Vorarlberg in the jazz category. In December 2019 David received the musical-pedagogical prize of the Patho Foundation, unique in Germany, for his outstanding achievements during his studies at the HfM Nuremberg. David lives in Berlin and is active in various projects in Germany and Austria as an instrumentalist, composer and singer.

www.davidsoyza.com

Lisa Hoppe — double bass, vocals, composition, concept

Lisa Hoppe is a double bassist, composer and improviser who lives 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 consistently strives 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