Joel Lyssarides
Arcs & Rivers

Joel Lyssarides / piano
Georgios Prokopiou / bouzouki


The Art in Music: Cover art „Landschaft 1994“ (Detail) created by Manfred Bockelmann


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.