Written by Macedonian-born, Graz-based saxophonist and clarinetist Hristijan Risteski released the first single from his debut album today, and it’s the kind of introduction that tells you exactly where this record is headed — rooted, personal, and unhurried.
I’ve been keeping half an eye on Risteski since I first heard about the sessions for Waters Dance, his debut solo album due out in October 2026 on CD, LP and all major streaming platforms. Today he released the first single, “Coming Home,” along with an accompanying video, and it gives us our first real sense of what this Quartet has been building.
Risteski’s own story runs through the piece. He began on clarinet in Macedonia, completing classical studies before shifting into jazz and saxophone, and eventually found his way to Graz, where he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts (KUG) and settled into the city’s jazz scene. Inspired by childhood memories and a sense of wonder, the piece is built on a repeating four-chord sequence with a diatonic, folk-like melody. At its centre is the natural interplay between two traditional Macedonian rhythms, 7/8 and 11/8, moving into one another with a fluency that never feels like a display of technique. It simply feels like where the music wanted to go.
The Quartet behind him is worth dwelling on. Pianist Marko Churnchetz, bassist Hrvoje Kralj and drummer Chris Smith join Risteski on a record shaped as much by personal history as by musicianship. Kralj is a longtime friend and former roommate who supported Risteski through his early years in Graz; Churnchetz was someone Risteski heard live before working with him on a session in Ljubljana and was drawn to for his sensitivity and instinct; Smith, the sole American in the group, brings his own distinctive energy to the frontline. Risteski built the line-up with this album in mind, then spent nine to ten months playing live with the band before ever entering the studio — club dates, festival appearances, real chemistry earned rather than assembled. Tellingly, the final charts only reached the musicians ten days before recording, so a good deal of what ended up on tape was encountered by the band in something close to real time.
That balance — a working band with deep trust, meeting genuinely new material — is the engine of Waters Dance. The album was recorded at ArteSuono Studio in Italy with Stefano Amerio at the desk, and across its nine compositions it moves through themes of identity, change and motion, tracing a search for connection between musical traditions and lived experience. As a composer, Risteski works from ideas rather than formulas — a rhythm, a melodic fragment, a harmonic shape left to develop on its own terms — drawing on classical material and Macedonian odd meters without ever tipping into the academic. “Coming Home” is a fitting first window into that world: warm, folk-inflected, and built on rhythms that clearly mean something to him beyond their technical interest. The video released alongside the track leans into that same warmth, giving the music a visual setting rather than competing with it.
With the single and video now out, and the record itself still to come in October, this looks like the start of a campaign built around singles, videos and live dates leading up to the album proper. As soon as Waters Dance is out, we’ll publish our review here at Jazz in Europe.
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Last modified: July 17, 2026
