With over 40,000 followers on Instagram, award-winning pianist and composer OKIEM (Okiem Warmann) is slowly taking over the world. With gorgeous visuals and effortless on-stage charm, OKIEM’s deceptively simple, cinematic compositions take on a whole new power when experienced live. Clearly influenced by other giants of minimalistic, piano-led compositions like Ludovico Einaudi and Michael Nyman, OKIEM’s style is nonetheless completely his own.

OKIEM’s music is taken up another level with the addition of the ensemble he founded, The Infinity Orchestra. A chamber ensemble of strings, with some horns and percussion, OKIEM’s arrangements allow every member of the group to shine, with some emotional solos, particularly in the impassioned “Cairo” from his album The Golden Circle (2022). Mostly, the ensemble take a supportive role, offering soft beds of sustained chords, but the orchestration often goes beyond this, like some icy harmonics in “Quando Lido”, and pizzicato in Enya-inspired “The Angel That Cries”.

Talking to the audience, OKIEM gives us a little window into the glamorous life: being cherry-picked to perform at a secret jewellery premiere for Gucci; meeting Denzel Washington in Paris and asking him to record some spoken word for his track “Phosphorous”; offering a bottle of champagne to the audience member who can correctly identify every track title in a medley of film and pop themes. It’s a kind of American flair for celebrating success, but always in the spirit of inclusiveness and gratitude.

OKIEM’s also not just acoustic: he clearly loves playing the keytar (Google it) for a barnstorming synth lead on “Inspector Gadget”, while heavy drum machine and synth bring in a whole other dark dimension for tracks like “Purple Sky” and “The Golden Circle”.

OKIEM is on tour.