About
VOCALIST | ACTOR | IMPROVISER | COMPOSER | POET
SASCHA LEY is a multidisciplinary artist with a penchant for offbeat projects.
As a vocalist and improviser she loves to explore the boundaries at the intersections of jazz, free improvisation, avant-garde, imaginary folklore, classical and new music creating a complementary blend of improvisation and composition.
She performs internationally with her solo and her duo to quartet combos, as well as guest singer in a wide variety of ensembles of jazz and contemporary music.
Her performance and improvisational work comes close to the art of collages and abstract narratives while synthesizing several disciplines.
Parallel to music Sascha is an active polyglot actor, poet, performer and occasional director and involved in the word and visual arts.
A major interest lies in the themes of perception and aesthetics, their possible shift and influence on understanding and communication.
Sascha has studied jazz, Hindustani vocals, classic and extended vocal techniques in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Mumbai and Saarbrücken, attended master classes with avantgarde and improvising artists Shelley Hirsch, Meredith Monk, Sainkho Namtschylak and Frank Köllges, a.o. and toured Europe, India, China, Canada and the United States.
Since the beginning of 2000 she has produced several shows, performances and albums under her label and Food for Thought Office yela music yela muse, based in Luxembourg.
Current Projects
COSMOS (Not Enough)
Sascha Ley SOLO INVENTIONS
AXIS MUNDI Ley Payfert Öztürk Boffo
Instant Composition
KNEF Revisited Ruby & Ley
Watch & listen
Youtube Channel "Improvisations and Inventions"
Youtube all Playlists
Showreel Film
yela music yela muse
Sascha’s Independent Food For Thought Office & Production Label since 1999
History
ALBUMS
2024 Axis Mundi Sascha Ley & Laurent Payfert w/Murat Öztürk & Jean Pascal Boffo
2022 In Between Sascha Ley / Solo (JHM 292)
2019 It's Alright To Be Everywhere Sascha Ley & Laurent Payfert (JHM)
2015 The Wee Hours Sascha Ley & Laurent Payfert
2013 Everything Within Kalima (Neuklang)
2010 Kalima Kalima
2007 Travelling Light Sascha Ley
1999 Heute Abend Lola Blau – live Sascha Ley
Shows & Performances
2024- ongoing
Cosmos (Not Enough) Solo performance
2021-22 Onirisée (Les Oniristes)
2020- Free Spirit Songs
2015 Meet SAM (w/ Anne-Mareike Hess)
2012 Rituals I
2011-13 Sascha & Nataša
2010-12 Femme Totale
2005-07 Das mit den Männern und den Frau'n
2001-03 Lost In The Stars - Kurt Weill Songs
Awards
Haidy Jacobi Award, Germany
Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite
du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
Audience Choice Award of Festival
Tremplin Jazz d’Avignon
Studio Hamburg European Shooting Star
Berlinale Festival Berlin 2005
Best interpretation “Songs For Life”