Sokratis Sinopoulos & Yann Keerim (ECM)

Greek musician Sokratis Sinopoulos is a contemporary master of the lyra, a bowed instrument that dates back to the Byzantine era. His playing is delicate and nuanced yet highly expressive, and his proficiency on the instrument has been widely acclaimed. Sinopoulos has collaborated with numerous musicians throughout the world. He is equally comfortable crossing genre boundaries into jazz and classical music as he is staying true to the folk traditions of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. In 2010, he formed the Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet with pianist Yann Keerim, bassist Dimitris Tsekouras and drummer Dimitris Emmanouil. The quartet’s two albums, “Eight Winds” and “Metamodal”, were produced by Manfred Eicher for ECM Records and received excellent reviews globally. Sinopoulos is a professor in the Department of Music Science and Art at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Greek pianist Yann Keerim has developed a musical language that moves between classical tradition, Mediterranean folk idioms, and contemporary improvisation. Born in Ioannina, in northwest Greece, Keerim began piano studies at the age of four, later drawing inspiration from Alexander Scriabin’s harmonic innovations. At the same time, he learned by ear at village festivals, where the sounds of regional music shaped his sense of rhythm and improvisation. His most recent release, Topos (ECM, 2025), is his first duo recording with lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos, produced by Manfred Eicher. The album reimagines Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances and introduces original pieces, creating a shared sound world where folk memory and contemporary expression meet. Topos is the latest step in their long collaboration, which also includes Keerim’s role as pianist in the Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet on the ECM albums Eight Winds (2013) and Metamodal (2019). Yann is also a member of the Oceania Trio, presenting original compositions in a European jazz context, and the JAK Trio, where the music of Epirus meets classical forms.