yannis anft
Yannis Anft is a pianist, composer and producer currently based in Berlin.
Born in 1993 in Cologne, Yannis 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 names Hip Hop/Neo Soul act SALOMEA and his own project Delusional Mind as his main projects.
Further collaborations developed over the last years with the NDR Big Band, the Hamburg crossover hip-hop act TOYTOY and the Cologne Contemporary Jazz Orchestra. For the last five years Yannis has also been active as a producer and (vinyl) DJ under the alias YYARD. He received awards as a scholarship holder of the Dr. Werner Richard Carl Dörken Foundation (2016, with SALOMEA) and finalist of the New German Jazz Award (2018, with SALOMEA), as well as his own trio (Osnabrück Jazz Award).
Yannis draws inspiration from his many years of experience as a jazz pianist and a lively interest in other musical genres and art forms, as well as Japanese Zen Buddhism.
Concerts brought him to stages in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Denmark, Morocco, Chile, Estonia and Slovenia.
delusional mind
Yannis Anft, Leif Berger and David Helm are Delusional Mind, not merely as a formation on paper or in their functions as keyboardist/composer, drummer and bassist, but in every fiber of their organically grown music.
Delusional Mind have created their own space. Anft places compositions into this world like one plants seedlings into the earth - and Delusional Mind accompany the process of their development. Together with producer and drummer Jan Philipp, the tracks are refined without determining them. An approach that feeds the melancholic dialectic of the pieces, which describe a path whose beginning and end cannot be discerned.
The term ambient seems apt to categorize everything, at the latest when you get lost in the track "Monolog", but less as a fossil terminology of pop criticism, more as an echo of an attitude. One suspects that Yannis Anft appreciates the music of Jan Jelinek and might name Zen Buddhism as a source of inspiration - and is hardly surprised when one learns that Delusional Mind also play a track from Aphex Twins' "Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2" live at times. Music to marvel at.
The most recent, yet unreleased album „becoming an area“ features Emily Wittbrodt on Cello, the voice of Marie Tjong Ayong and digital sound processing of Kitsune, an audiovisual artist based in Essen, Germany. The album will be released on Papercup Records in July 2025.
YYARD
YYARD represents another side of the artist in which he focusses on producing electronic music, while emphasizing club-oriented sounds.
The soundscapes of YYARD's productions are characterized by playful textures, pulsating and driving grooves, as well as a loving and detailed sound design. Tempos and genre play a subordinate role. Anft tries to give the listener access to a world of his own, in which you can lose yourself on the dance floor. Also in his DJ sets Anft puts focus on the creation of a welcoming and open vibe, which he creates through accurately selected tracks from the field of House, Techno or Breakbeat.
In summer 2024 YYARD released „San Ásteria“, a four track EP which came out on Polygonia’s Label QEONE. More Recently he contributed a track to a various artist compilation called „Pattern Gardening“, hosted by UK label Wisdom Teeth. Besides that YYARD keeps on self-releasing music via Bandcamp such as his „recalibrate ep“ (2024) and single track called „Prayer (Feel Like This)“.
