Sokratis Sinopoulos & Yan Keerim | "Topos"

The Greek Duo of Lyra Player Sokratis Sinopoulos and Pianist Yannis Kirimkiridis’s First Studio Statement is a Deep Well of Inspired Musical Dialogues that Cross the Idiomatic Space Between European Folk Tradition and Chamber-Jazz Seamlessly

Available October 17, 2025 via ECM

Our Topos is where tradition meets the present, the Balkan Mountains meet urban space, the music of the countryside meets contemporary creation. Our Topos is where we meet and interact, shaping our individual and common identities.

– Sokratis & Yann

The Greek duo of lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos and pianist Yannis Kirimkiridis’s first studio statement is a deep well of inspired musical dialogues that cross the idiomatic space between European folk tradition and chamber-jazz seamlessly. Bartók’s six “Romanian Folk Dances” appear in newly shaped guises throughout the album, with Sokratis’s painterly lyra playing setting a lyrical counterpoint against Yannis’s in turns rhythmically propulsive and quietly thoughtful accompaniment. This is the first time the duo is heard distilled from Sokratis’s acclaimed quartet (albums Eight Winds and Metamodal) and their conversations interlock gracefully, always responsive to one another and with a keen sense of space and atmosphere. Their own duo elaborations join the Bartók studies unnoticeably, as everything becomes connected by the pair’s fluid expression.

Developed during almost two decades of close collaboration – most notably as part of Sokratis’s quartet – the lyra and piano players’ intimate musical understanding for one another reaches a new fluency on Topos. And the title directly refers to their shared familiar musical landscape, as the two musicians explain: “In Greek, topos can also mean home, or homeland. But it’s not just about the place or the things. It’s the culture, the connection between people – that’s also the meaning of the term. So what we do on this album is create our topos, which involves broad music-cultural implications, including Hungary, Romania, the Balkans. And we continue to expand it, and make it known to other people, inviting them to become part of it.” Their shared background in the folk music of Greece, which both musicians grew up with, is the starting point in this case, that allows them to dive deep into each other’s musical mind.

Making up a large segment of the duo’s topos on this particular venture are the “Romanian Folk Dances” of Béla Bartók – repertory, with which Sokratis has been occupied since being invited by director Jonathan Morton to perform it alongside Morton’s Scottish Ensemble almost ten years ago. Through the duo’s lens however, the dances have become transfigured, deconstructed and then reassembled as an echo or a reaction to the original material. “We opened the material up a lot, took the melodic and rhythmical patterns and developed them in many different ways,” Sokratis notes.

The lyra’s lyrical qualities, heightened by particularly expressive glissando bowing, are gracefully pillowed in Yann’s responsive piano accompaniment throughout. Embraced by droning keys on “In One Spot”, uplifted by a soft harmonic stride in “Slash Dance”, then supported by the most reduced brush-like key strokes before the piano takes over the melody on “Dance For Bucsum”. On his lyra, Sokratis sings these songs with empathy and a deep connection to Yann’s spontaneous ideas. For “Romanian Polka” the two share the up-beat rhythmic component in equal measures, with Sokratis at his most freewheeling.

Yann: “You have to respect the history of the lyra when interacting with it. You have that responsibility. You can’t let your fellow musician – in this case Sokratis – feel outside of the world he has in his own mind. So it’s a balancing act of breaking free from certain formalities but also keeping within a specific tradition, aesthetic or sound world. That’s how you end up creating your own realm of sound, in that careful exchange.”

In preparation of the recording, the duo went back to the source, listening to the original field recordings Bartók made of various folk musics. But they also left room for in-the-moment inspiration when heading to the studio, where the lyra player and pianist recorded the dances in one continued performance as opposed to separate takes for each piece. Elaborating on their collective process, Yann adds that “many things happened on the spot while recording this album. The songs were reshaped, with much spontaneous improvisation. And we played everything in one go, as if it were one large piece. That way the music was captured within a very unique and coherent atmosphere, creating a specific sound world that we dived into and which ended up influencing our own pieces.”

The duo’s original songs – “Vlachia”, “Valley”, “Mountain Path” and “Forest Glade” – tie in with the programme as extensions of the Bartók share of the record – like further developments of the aesthetic and folk-based architectures the Hungarian composer brought to the world. On “Vlachia”, the album-opening piece, it becomes expressed through rumbling piano arpeggios and longing melody, whereas “Valley” is set in a more conversational style, finding Sokratis and Yann in dynamically ebbing and flowing exchanges. “Mountain Path” works as an atmospheric interlude, while “Forest Glade” marks the impressionist highlight of the world of the sound the duo unravels on Topos.

Recorded in February 2024 in Athens, where the album was mixed in April 2025, Topos was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Sokratis Sinopoulos has collaborated with a variety of international artists, equally comfortable crossing genre boundaries between jazz and classical, while always incorporating the folk traditions of Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean. Born in Athens in 1974, he studied Byzantine music and classical guitar as a child, before switching to the lyra in 1988.

He entered the ECM world as part of Eleni Karaindrou’s ensemble on 2002’s Trojan Women – Music for the Stageplay by Euripides and has continued to collaborate with the Greek composer since, reappearing on The Weeping Meadow – Film by Theo Angelopoulos (2004), 2008’s Elegy of Uprooting, Medea (2014) and 2018’s Tous des oiseaux. The lyra player is also heard alongside Charles Lloyd and Maria Farantouri on Athens Concert, the acclaimed 2011 live recording captured at the Herod Atticus Odeon (“the lyra of Socratis Sinopoulos enters, a yearning, sweet sound of extraordinary poignancy” – Thomas Conrad, Stereophile).

In 2010, Sokratis formed his quartet with pianist Yann Keerim, bassist Dimitris Tsekouras, and drummer Dimitris Emmanouil. The group’s debut Eight Winds was released in 2015, with the follow-up Metamodal in 2019. “Music that ranges from pastoral to exhilarating, makes for a genuinely intoxicating album, and one that will delight many listeners no matter where their musical roots herald from…” – Uk Vibe.