João Lobo :
From jazz to gnawa music, electro-acoustic trance to total improvisation, in solo or in a big band, collaborating on dance and theatre productions and making soundtracks for movies (including “John From” which got him a nomination for Best Original Music at the Fénix Awards 2016 in Mexico), João Lobo maintains a versatile career as a musician mainly playing the drums.
He is the co-founder of Oba Loba, Going, Tetterapadequ, Norman, Mulabanda, and a proud member of Giovanni Guidi Trio, Manuel Hermia Trio, Punk Kong.
He has recorded more than 40 albums, some self-produced and others for labels such as ECM, Clean Feed, CamJazz, De Werf, El Negocito, three:four records, Challenge, NEOS.
He has performed and/or recorded in many countries around the world with many musicians including Enrico Rava, Marshall Allen, Rosewell Rudd, Carlos Bica, Nate Wooley, Maalem Hassan Zogari, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Thomas Morgan, Chris Corsano, and collaborates intensely with Norberto Lobo, Giovanni Di Domenico, Lynn Cassiers, Manolo Cabras and Giovanni Guidi.
John's work ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback, unusual acoustics and non-concert locations.
Originally a physicist, he left academia in '82, and has since collaborated with hundreds of musicians - Derek Bailey, John Tilbury, John Stevens, The EX, Akio Suzuki, Gerry Hemingway, Polwechsel, Gino Robair, Rhodri Davies, Okkyung Lee, John Edwards, Toshi Nakamura, Paul Lovens, Eddie Prevost, Mark Sanders, Ståle Liavik Solberg, Christian Marclay, Otomo Yoshihide, Phil Minton, and Andy Moor - to name a few.
He is well known as a solo performer who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of place. Resonant Spaces is a collection of site-specific performances collected during a tour of unusual locations in Scotland and the Orkney Islands.
His first solo album, Thirteen Friendly Numbers, includes compositions for multitracked saxophones, whilst later solo CDs focus on live performance, composition, amplification and saxophone-controlled feedback.
Picture (C) : Laurent Orseau