The Alou String Quartet is a Berlin-based ensemble exploring the meeting point of jazz, groove and improvisation within the sound of a string quartet. Through original compositions and arrangements, the group has developed its own musical language, combining chamber music with jazz and rhythmic energy.

Their music moves between composed structures and improvisation, bringing a fresh perspective to the possibilities of the string quartet. The quartet’s debut album will be released on Boomslang Records in March 2027.

Myrsini Bekakou (Violin)
Alma Gröning (Violin)
Davis West (Viola)
Esther Thoben (Violoncello)

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The Myrsini Bekakou Quartet is a jazz ensemble performing original music inspired by Greek rhythms and melodies. Drawing on contemporary jazz, modal language and improvisation, the quartet develops a sound that brings together Myrsini Bekakou’s Greek musical roots with her experience in the contemporary jazz scene in Germany.

Founded in 2024, the quartet has already performed at venues and festivals across Germany, including Jazztage Leipzig. In autumn 2026, the quartet will record its debut album at Bauer Studios, supported by Initiative Musik and the Freundeskreis der Bauer Studios e.V.

Myrsini Bekakou (violin)
Hakim Azmi (piano)
Natasha Zaichenko (double bass)
Anton Mück (drums)

Initially starting as an improvisation-focused chamber ensemble employing a unique toolset of hand-sign language, Leipzig based IDEAL ORCHESTRA quickly evolved into a platform for avant-garde orchestral music.

With the constant addition of new compostions by Gellért Szabó the orchestra's performances have become a synergy of conducted improvisations and meticulously crafted compositions. Audiences are taken on an unpredictable sonic voyage, seamlessly blending unexpected bursts of brutalist noisewalls with cinematic soundpaintings.

Currently the orchestra comprises 23 musicians with a unique instrumentation, each one of them contributing to the ensemble's distinctive sound.

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A concept, a sound, a space of consciousness. In psychoanalytic theory, “transference” describes the unconscious shifting of experiences and feelings from one interpersonal situation to the next. The musicians will take up the idea of unconscious transference and interpret it through experimental sounds and improvised structures. An essential mixture of strings and drums – from floating tones to powerful impulses – drives the soundscape forward, embedded in a sound that is constantly transforming.

Myrsini Bekakou (violin, electronics)
Paula Wünsch (bass, electronics)
Leonie Sobek (drums, electronics)

‘THE RESISTANCE TO CONFORM TO THE EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS INSPIRES VOICE, VIOLIN, BASS AND DRUMS PIZZICATO, NOISE, RAP AND MELANCHOLY, SERIOUS AND NOT SERIOUS, SPACE AND PRECISION. THE FUTURE.”

The four musicians Pauline Tschirschwitz (vocals, synthesizer, fx), Myrsini Bekakou (violin, loop station, fx), Leonie Sobek (drums, percussion) Paula Wünsch (bass, fx) met in the jazz department of the HMT Leipzig and founded Shejust_left in autumn 2019.

Their music moved between experimental hip-hop, jazz, neo-soul, ambient and noise. With improvisation being always the connecting mortar, their music takes shape through voice, violin, loopstation, synthesizer, electronics, bass and drums.

The band released their debut Album ‘Loupara’ in September 2023, which is still available
on CD and Vinyl.

Unfortunately, the band had to announce their break-up in 2024.