George Klountzos-ChrysidisMusician - Drummer

George Klountzos-Chrysidis was born in Thessaloniki in 1991.

He began his craft in 2001 at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki under the guidance of Costas Pagonidis.

In 2008, he moved to France in order to continue his studies at the Conservatory of Nice. During that time he participated to well-known festivals such as the Nice Jazz Festival, Nuits du Sud and others.

In 2013 he took part in the Jazz à Vienne Festival with the big band of his Conservatory. He had the chance to meet the American drummer Leon Parker, who encouraged him to move to Paris in order to follow private lessons with him during the next two years.

In 2016 he traveled for the first time to New York. It was a defining moment of his career as he participated in saxophonist Diego Rivera's Quartet for many representations in Detroit, Michigan. He had the opportunity to also work with infamous pianist Xavier Davis, who was playing as a guest.

He had the occasion to work with musicians like: Xavier Davis, Ricky Ford, Nicolas Masson, Diego Rivera, Craig Bailey, Baptiste Herbin, Pierre Marcus, Robert Lucaciu, Marc Abrams, David Lynch, Ziad Rajab, Ivo Papasov, Pantelis Stoikos, Antonis Anissegos, Nefeli Fasouli and more. He is also a member of Yako Trio.

In his brand new album entitled "Semazen" he tries to cross boundaries between jazz, hip hop and house music, with a broad experimental approach.

"Semazen" borrowed from Persian Sama-zan, Sama, meaning listening, from Arabic, and zan, meaning doer, from Persian, is a form of physically active meditation which originated among certain Sufi groups. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, ego or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the Sun.