Hristijan Risteski’s 1st campaign single drops.

We are proud to announce the release of “Coming Home,” the first single from Hristijan Risteski’s debut album Waters Dance, out tomorrow alongside its accompanying video. The single marks the official start of the campaign for an album we have been closely involved with since its earliest stages, and one we believe will resonate strongly as it unfolds over the coming months.

Risteski is a Macedonian-born, Graz-based saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He began his musical training on clarinet in Macedonia, completing classical studies before moving into jazz and saxophone. His path led him to the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG), where he studied saxophone and became part of the city’s active jazz scene, developing the compositional voice that now defines Waters Dance.

The album was recorded with his working Quartet — Marko Churnchetz on piano, Hrvoje Kralj on double bass and Chris Smith on drums — at ArteSuono Studio in Udine, Italy, with engineer Stefano Amerio. Risteski built the line-up specifically for this project, drawn to Churnchetz’s musical sensitivity after hearing him live in Graz and later working with him on a session in Ljubljana, while Kralj is a longtime friend and former roommate who supported Risteski through his early years in the city. Smith, the sole American in the group, brings his own distinctive energy to the frontline. The band spent nine to ten months playing live together — club dates and festival appearances — before entering the studio, and the final compositions reached the musicians only ten days before recording began, giving the sessions an immediacy that carries through the finished record. Across the album, classical precision, Macedonian rhythmic traditions and contemporary jazz language combine into a single, cohesive statement built around themes of identity, change and motion.

As a composer, Risteski works from ideas rather than formulas, often starting with a rhythm, a melodic fragment or a harmonic shape and allowing it to develop over time. His writing draws on his classical background, Macedonian odd meters and personal memory, and the nine compositions that make up Waters Dance trace a search for connection between musical tradition and lived experience.

“Coming Home,” the piece introducing the project, is built on a repeating four-chord sequence and a diatonic, folk-like melody, with the interplay between two traditional Macedonian rhythms, 7/8 and 11/8, at its core. It sets the tone for a campaign that will unfold over the coming months: a second single and video will follow in September 2026, ahead of the full album release on October 2nd, 2026 on vinyl, CD and all major streaming platforms, supported by a program of live dates.

We are proud to represent Hristijan Risteski at this stage of his career. His combination of classical rigor, personal history and genuine trust in his bandmates is exactly the kind of project we look to support — music with a clear voice and the substance to back it up. We look forward to working alongside him through the release of Waters Dance and beyond.

For press materials, interview requests or booking enquiries, please get in touch, or visit the Hristijan Risteski artist page for further details.