PREMIERE : YYARD - Garden

Les Yeux Orange

YYARD - Dead Neighbour’s Garden EP Label: Sound of Berlin (https://soundcloud.com/soundofberlin_official) https://soundcloud.com/yannis-anft-333486322 Release Date: 7 December 2022 Berlin Newcomer YYARD Releases His Debut EP ‘Dead Neighbour’s Garden EP’ On 7 December via Sound of Berlin Wrapping up sonically satisfying 2022 with a curveball, Sound of Berlin introduces a multi-instrumentalist and producer YYARD (born Yannis Anft) and his compelling debut ‘Dead Neighbour’s Garden EP’, a release that comes with a darkly comic backstory: “The title was inspired by the view I had from my room while producing these tracks,” Anft explains. “I think my neighbours on the opposite side of the street are doctors or something, cause they had a skeleton positioned right in front of their window.” Permeated by a hybrid of tongue-in-cheek glitch and post-rave wistfulness, the EP springs to mind the genre-busting ‘Artificial Intelligence’ -compilations of the early 1990s Warp era. The title’s track spectral woodblock bass clangs underneath the skittery electro-funk beat – on the flipside it’s the rippling chords washing over the arpeggios that lend ‘Garden’ its stillness and serenity. These distinct variations in textures and timbres are what this release constantly gravitates towards. “During the pandemic I wanted to finish a few ideas that have been laying around in my Ableton folder for a while,” Anft recalls. “I was experimenting with different styles and feelings and thought Dead Neighbours and Garden were a good choice to map this variety.” YYARD is the musical project of pianist, keyboardist, and producer Yannis Anft with a musical horizon wide enough to fit Coby Sey, Thundercat, and DJ Stingray. Anft draws inspiration from years of experience as a jazz pianist and a lively interest in other musical genres, art forms, and aesthetics including Japanese Zen Buddhism. Born in 1993, Anft started playing the piano at the age of 11. From 2013 to 2019 he studied jazz piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, with teachers such as Hubert Nuss and Jürgen Friedrich. Since then, he has been active as a pianist, keyboardist, and producer. In addition to engagements in numerous side projects based in various genres, he is part of hip hop / neo-soul act SALOMEA and experimental jazz fusion project Delusional Mind. Live concerts and DJ sets have taken him to stages in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Denmark, Morocco, and Slovenia. After visiting Berlin clubs on weekends and getting a taste of the music scene, Anft moved to the capital in October 2021.