Lambert (DE) & Jean-Michel Blais (CA)

It is now ten years since Lambert last graced our stage. The identity of the person behind his distinctive Sardinian mask remains a mystery. What is certain, however, is that his cinematic post-classical music has stood the test of time for over a decade. Since his debut in 2014, the German pianist and composer has been steadily building his own universe of sparse piano compositions, drawing on influences from minimal music, jazz and even subtle pop structures. It is a world in which Hania Rani, Joep Beving, Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds, among others, are kindred spirits.With his new album I AM NOT LAMBERT (2026), he shatters his own myth and poses the question more sharply than ever: who is Lambert, really? For the first time, voices come to the fore emphatically and his music becomes explicitly song-oriented, without relinquishing his characteristic minimalist precision and repetitive arcs of tension. The compositions balance between intimacy and expansiveness, yet never become merely decorative. A subtle sense of rhythm weaves everything together.Live, this translates into focused sets in which mask or no mask becomes a mere detail: silence, dynamics and nuance carry just as much weight as virtuosity. No spectacle, but all the more intensity. Jean-Michel Blais (CA) Jean-Michel Blais is a Montreal-based pianist, composer and performer, signed to Arts & Crafts and Mercury KX (Decca). His debut album Il was named one of Time magazine’s Top 10 Albums of 2016, and his catalogue has since amassed more than 375 million streams. A member of the LGBTQ+ community and living with Tourette’s syndrome, Blais draws on his background as a former special needs educator to craft music that is both deeply personal and quietly expansive, blending minimal yet virtuosic piano writing with lush orchestral and electronic textures. On stage, Blais captivates audiences in settings ranging from intimate recital halls to crowds of over 40,000 at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. His work resonates equally with classical, pop and electronic listeners, and he performs in solo, chamber and orchestral formats. Internationally, his touring has taken him to venues including London’s Southbank Centre, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Moscow’s Gnesin Hall, and the Montreux Jazz Festival. His albums have received widespread critical acclaim from publications including Pitchfork, The Fader and Le Figaro, alongside recognition from major awards bodies such as the Libera Awards, the UKMVA and the Junos. His compositional work also extends to film and immersive environments, as he received a Cannes Soundtrack Award for Matthias & Maxime by Xavier Dolan and composed the score for Moment Factory’s Wonderfall installation at Changi Airport. His music has also appeared in Netflix’s The Brothers Sun, a Tudor campaign, a Louis Vuitton film, and was featured in figure skating at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.His most recent release, désert, an hour-long improvisational collaboration with electronic harpist Lara Somogyi, has spent 35 weeks on the US Billboard Classical Albums chart.