Lisa Hoppe - bass & compositions, Gaya Feldheim - Schorr - voice & electronics, Julia Rüffert - trombone, Laura Schuler - violin & electronics, Danielle Friedman - piano

Photo by Iveta Rysava

Faking an Imperfect Utopia OUT NOW

Available as digital download, CD+ Edition & most streaming services

“Unfassbar ästhetisches Debut” - Jazzlabor MDR, D

"Œuvre étonnante et remarquable, ce premier album nous invite dans un univers très personnel que Lisa Hoppe anime de main de maître avec d’excellentes solistes." - Citizen Jazz, FR

„Sad and funny. Comforting and frightening. Prepare to be moved by this creation. It's one of the most solemn, well- curated and powerful sets of music I've heard in a long while.” – The Upbeat Deadbeat, USA

“Empfindsam gedichtete Worte tun ihr Übriges im lyrischen Erzählfluss, der in den elf Stücken geschmeidig über Ecken, Kanten und Brüche hinweggeht. Melancholie und Humor sind keine Gegensätze mehr.” - Jazzthetik, D

“Das improvisatorische Element, das allen fünf Musikerinnen am Herzen und im Blut liegt. […] Ein originelles und unverwechselbares Kunst-Erlebnis am Rande der Anarchie.” - Jazz’N’More, CH

“Ein unverwechselbares, multiperspektivisches Album […] beeindruckt mit einer genreübergreifenden Musik zwischen Songform, elaborierter Folklore, diversen Jazz-Facetten, (zeitgenössischer) Kammermusik, Ambient.” - Jazz Podium, D

„Schillernd-komplexe Songs, […] filigrane Traumwelten mit elegischen Gesängen, melancholischen Posaunenlinien, scharfkonturierten Geigensounds und fein verzahnten Rhythmen.“ – Jazzzeitung.de, D

“The technical virtuosity sounds light and unpretentious, crafting a common language that is attentive, and in a way, decomplexifies the suffocating sound world in which we live” - Jazz.pt, POR

„Originalitätswahn“ – Der Bund, CH

About the band

It’s not uncommon for contemporary jazz composers to blur lines between genres, but Lisa Hoppe’s YSOP gleefully destroys the genre fence, bashing through the wall of a jazz pub and into a rock club, sneaking in the window of a choir rehearsal, and skipping into a playground where kids are banging on cans and chanting. Faking An Imperfect Utopia displays an acrobatic dexterity that’s playfully and astoundingly light. The performers exhibit both technical virtuosity and musical understanding of each genre while creating a sound that is YSOP’s alone. During solos and group improvisations it’s as if the players are asking, „Who are we as musicians? Where is our musical home?“ While some bands represent, for instance, New Orleans Jazz, Chicago Blues or West Coast Surf Rock, YSOP’s cultural home is as variegated as a kitchen in Tel Aviv, a back bedroom in New York or a Berlin city park—an everywhere/nowhere in which, through some mysterious streaming device, the planet’s most eclectic playlist is pulling music out of the ether of our age.  

Paul Brody

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TOUR DATES

  • Panda Jazz

    22.05.2024 Berlin, Germany

  • Cully Jazz Festival

    05.04.2024 Cully, Switzerland

  • MuWo

    04.04.2024 Basel, Switzerland

  • Terminus

    30.03.2024 Saarbrücken, Germany

  • Donau 115

    29.03.2024 Berlin, Germany

  • New Colours Festival

    09.09.23 Gelsenkirchen, Germany

  • Bird's Eye

    22.03.2023 Basel, Switzerland

  • BeJazz Winterfest

    20.01.2023 Bern, Switzerland

  • Leipziger Jazztage

    29.10.22 Leipziger Jazztage Festival, Germany

  • Donau 115

    22.09.22 Berlin, Germany

  • BeJazz Transnational

    03.03.22 Bern, Switzerland

Lisa Hoppe is a double bassist, composer and improvisor, based in Berlin. Her musical works contain a variety of genres and non-genres: Ranging between free improvisation, jazz in all shapes and modern chamber music, she is always striving to put the melodic qualities of the double bass into contemporary context.

Danielle Friedman is an Israeli pianist and composer and improviser based in Berlin. Her music flows between Jazz, Classical, and lyrical as well as rhythmic free improvisation, riddled with imagination. She studied at The Center For Jazz Studies in Tel Aviv, and received a full scholarship to finish her Bachelor's in Fine Arts at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary music in New York. 

Julia Rüffert was born in Germany and started playing trombone at the age of 14. She later relocated to Switzerland where she studied jazz trombone, pedagogy and composition. Today she is living in Bern and divides her time between playing music, teaching and composing. She performs regularly with jazz orchestras, and is as well member of several smaller groups.

Gaya Feldheim-Schorr is a vocalist, improviser and composer originally from Tel-Aviv, later based in New York and currently living in Marseille, France. In the endeavor to seek and share human stories, her musical work fluctuates from jazz and free improvisation, to alternative-folk and modern chamber music, always inevitably spiced with an equal dose of warmth and melancholy.

Laura Schuler is a freelance violinist, vocalist and producer based in Bern. Since 2020 she produces and performs live under the name Kate Birch alongside drummer and multi instrumentalist Clemens Kuratle. Laura leads her quartet with Tony Malaby, Hanspeter Pfammatter and Lionel Friedli. As a Co-leader she is active in the trio Esche (with Luzius Schuler and Lisa Hoppe) and involved in various ad hoc free improvising ensembles in Europe.

Photos by Cristina Marx

Contact us

For booking, questions or just saying hi :)