Jan Peleska started playing classical guitar at the age of 10 and studied with Bernard Hebb at the Hamburg Conservatory as well as with Eike Funk (lutenist and guitarist at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg). He took composition lessons with Hans-Georg Lotz. A detour via a degree in mathematics, various jobs as a software specialist in industry and a professorship in computer science at the University of Bremen eventually led him to jazz, where – supported by the well-known Bremen guitarist Jan-Olaf Rodt – he specialised in modern jazz, fusion and rock.
Yevgeniy Kuzmov is a Ukrainian saxophonist and educator. He graduated from the conservatory in Kharkiv (Ukraine) as a classical musician and also completed the jazz department of the “KASK” conservatory in Ghent (Belgium).
In Ukraine he served as a jury member at national and international competitions for wind instruments, was the artistic director of a jazz orchestra, and taught at the National Academy of Arts in Kharkiv, where he instructed saxophone and jazz ensemble.
He now lives in Germany and collaborates with numerous musicians from all over the world.
Kai Thomsen discovered his passion for the piano as a teenager via the keyboard. After several years of lessons he specialised in jazz in all its facets, which he masters virtuously and with a fine sense for harmonic and rhythmic nuances. Jan, Kai and Friedemann soon realised that their musical preferences fit together “hand-in-glove” and in 2021 founded the core of Sound & Complete, at that time still with the friendly support of Jan-Olaf Rodt on bass.
Volker Tesmer has been making music all his life, first on piano and later on electric and acoustic bass. Open to all kinds of music, what excites him most is the interaction with other musicians, which is why his focus for some time now has been jazz in all its styles. Kai and Jan met Volker at Bremen’s wonderful Jazzwerkstatt, where he impressed them with his stylistic confidence across the full spectrum from modern jazz to funk.
Drummer Friedemann Bartels studied music at the University of Oldenburg as well as at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. At the same time, he already had numerous performances in the Netherlands and Germany with jazz musicians from the international scene.
In the 1990s he was involved in the jazz series “Who’s Uncle Mo” at the Bremen club Moments; later he went on international concert tours with various bands. He has contributed to numerous record productions, some of which received the German Record Critics’ Award. Friedemann also teaches, among others, at the University of the Arts Bremen.
