Joel Lyssarides, born in 1992, recordings are already among the most listened-to in European jazz; on Spotify alone he has reached over 50 million plays. And yet these huge numbers are not the result of any calculation, he explains: “As happy as I am that a lot of people obviously like my music a lot, the creative impulse always comes from within me. Me and my piano, they’re at the centre of my musical world.” Lyssarides has collaborated with jazz, classical, blues and pop artists such as trombonist Nils Landgren and singer Viktoria Tolstoy... but he has also worked with YouTube phenomenon “Dirty Loops”, and with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. Jazz is at the very core of Joel Lyssarides work. The initial spark came from records by Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Monk. 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, notably in 2019, Musician of the Year from Swedish Radio. For Lyssarides jazz is above all a language, a tool for uniquely personal expression. His music is strongly influenced by space, sound and mood. Everything flows and swings, nothing seems deliberate or contrived, one can hear a natural understanding for the infinite possibilities of every note. And it is in the most intimate, quiet, focused and concentrated moments that the most spectacular things happen.