Microcosmos: Lambert

Microcosmos: Lambert

A thrilling musical journey that moves beyond labels and genres, starring musicians who have been exploring the unlimited possibilities of sound throughout their career, is taking place at the Lighthouse of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

This year's Microcosmos series is presenting five innovative artists with-at times more obvious and at other times less so-jazz backgrounds, who have stood out in the domestic and international music scene, disrupting forms and boundaries in any and all musical directions: From the "thrilling new saxophone Colossus" Oded Tzúr (Oct. 22) and his quartet, who transform the secrets of the Indian musical tradition into spiritual jazz, to the subversive Berlin pianist Lambert (Nov. 19), who combines diverse aspects of contemporary jazz with electronic and rock elements; and from the domestic duo Jan Van x Fotis Siotas (Jan. 21), who offer a new perspective on the musical tradition of Northern Greece through the project Folk Nowadays, to the domestic trio Mob (Feb. 11), who deconstruct jazz forms by integrating into their compositions elements ranging from post-punk to dance. At the final concert of the series, the British quartet Ruby Rushton (Mar. 31), led by the restless Tenderlonious, take us on a journey to the legacy of legends from the time of John Coltrane.

Mystery covers the pianist, composer and producer who has been standing out in the modern-day music scene of Berlin in recent years, not only because he always performs wearing a mask - thus preserving the tradition that Californian Residents inaugurated in pop music since the '70s - but also because it is impossible to musically classify him with absolute accuracy.

When his namesake debut album was released back in 2014, Lambert was perceived as someone who would "rock the boat" of the so-called modern classical music scene; yet, he demonstrated chameleonlike creative properties, each year releasing something different that would upend previous perceptions. After a remarkable discography, featuring creative collaborations (with English folk singer Brookln Dekker and visionary German music producer Stimming) and beautiful peculiar soundtracks, we all expected the mystery to be somehow solved through his latest albums bearing the "eloquent" titles True (2019), False (2020) and Open (2022).

But then came this year's album, All This Time, which put things on a different level, begging the question: is jazz his real musical self? Without a doubt, jazz is one of Lambert's primary influences and pursuits - which becomes quite clear here, both in the level of craftsmanship that characterizes him as a pianist and in his obvious references to Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett, or the sensitivity with which he interprets a standard such as Barbara Streisand's "Cry Me A River." Add to this the fact that he is joined by Felix Weigt on the bass and Luca Marini on the drums, and you get a classic jazz piano trio. Nevertheless, Lambert does not stick to his youthful musical affections, but shares with us various aspects of modern jazz, using electronic and palpably rock elements, thus revealing only a part of his musical self, leaving the way wide open for an exciting immediate future.

And as for the mystery, Lambert continues to appear masked in his live performances, and we continue to enjoy his music in a highly theatrical show.