Grégoire Jokic is first and foremost the story of a multiple love. The one that links the French composer to the piano, an instrument he has been playing since the age of 6, studying music in different establishments: at the Conservatoire of Caen, at the Sorbonne in Paris, as well as at the Haute École of the Arts du Rhin in Strasbourg. The one also worn by the Caennais for improvised music, gradually leading him towards jazz and composition. The one, finally, that Grégoire Jokic experiences for the discography of Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm or Esbjorn Svensson : so many names that the pianist willingly quotes, but from which he easily manages to stand out thanks to compositions based on structures relatively pop.

Sure of his strengths, conscious of turning his back on fixed aesthetics, Grégoire Jokic operates in his own way, away from a sometimes restrictive classicism. The instrumentalist, now based in Paris, plays with the codes of his time. We see him releasing his first album (Kairos) in 2021 and a first EP (Silent Impact) in 2022, we see him experimenting with the piano, less attracted by conventional forms and flames than by the possibility of composing the soundtrack of a sound journey from which we come back moved, almost troubled .

Mission accomplished: while “Blow”, his first single, was added to Nils Frahm’s official playlist for Piano Day 2021, the Berlin label K7! places “Vol de nuit” on the Piano Layers II compilation. In March 2022, Grégoire Jokic was even invited by Thylacine to open for the latter at the Olympia (Paris, France) and to tour with him (20 shows) He also opened for Fakear twice and Ghostly Kisses. Grégoire Jokic first headline solo show in Paris in January 2023 at Pop Up Du label was sold out. Now on to the sequel, symbolized by ‘Us’: a new EP recorded in his home studio.

Now, Grégoire Jokic embarks on the next chapter of his musical journey, symbolized by his latest offering, ‘Us.’ This new EP was meticulously recorded in his home studio, and the tracks on this EP showcase Grégoire’s artistic evolution.

He says: “I think of these five pieces as songs, I wanted pure melody almost every time and a simple structure. I was looking for emotion above all. Before the pianistic interest, before the arrangement, and even before the instrumental pleasure.
Simplicity and I hope authenticity is at the heart of these five pieces, like a return to the essential. My approach was to sit down at the piano and play without asking myself any questions, to let the music come to me, without thinking about all the cultural and pianistic references I know, which are an enrichment but also sometimes a burden to me. Trying to have no desire to prove anything, with emotion as the goal. Right now, I’m on a path of simplification, which probably won’t last forever, but I’m there.”