Viktoria Tolstoy is one rare bird in the music industry.

She is a totally natural talent, someone who just gets it all in an instant.
No explaining has to be done when learning a new song, no corrections has to be made when recording.
Viktoria is simply an extraordinary talented woman with an almost scary instinct for different styles and modes. No matter what she takes on, she nails it right away.
And, she delivers every time and, how she does it! On top of that, she is someone to hang with and to have fun with, on and off stage which is a very important aspect in the way of getting along with an artist.
Her laugh is famous as well as her sense of humor. Often with a twist but always positive. Her smile melts glaciers and her appearance does never go unnoticed.
Or, with lesser words: Vikoria is a complete artist.

- Nils Landgren, producer and fellow artist

“For me music is not a calculation, when I play I follow my intuition. The creative impulse always comes from within me. Me and my piano, they’re at the centre of my musical world.” For Joel Lyssarides jazz is above all a language, a tool for uniquely personal expression. He composed the pieces for “Stay Now” in a remote house in the forest, a good half-hour outside Stockholm. And by preference at night, in silence, darkness and deep concentration. The atmosphere of this place is audibly reflected in the music, which is strongly influenced by space, sound and mood - reinforced by the highly concentrated, differentiated, subtle interplay of pianist Lyssarides with bassist Niklas Fernqvist and drummer Rasmus Blixt. What these three young musicians have in common is their capacity for great sensitivity and expressiveness. Their music is based on a vocabulary that draws equally from European classical music, jazz from both sides of the Atlantic and great songwriting, with all its depth and accessibility. And yet this has nothing to do with crossover. Everything flows and swings, nothing seems deliberate or contrived, one can hear a natural understanding for the infinite possibilities of every note. This trio has the self-confidence to put the entirety of their efforts into enhancing the expressiveness of the music. And it is in the most intimate, quiet, focused and concentrated moments that the most spectacular things happen.
The album title “Stay Now”, therefore, is above all an acknowledgement of quite how precious the here and now is. These are the moments when we start to understand the true value of present and past encounters. As we listen, we can let the moment linger… and allow ourselves to sink blissfully and unforgettably into it.