Contact:
joanna.ewa.john@gmail.com
+47 46 23 21 39

Links:
joannajohn.com
instagram.com/joanna.ewa.john
facebook.com/azjajohn

Spotify:

Bio:
Joanna John – visual artist, composer, designer, and author of installations and objects. Born in 1983 in Poland. Lives in Norway. The spectrum of her interests oscillates around the issues of time perception, imagination, mechanisms of memory, questions about the nature of the mind, and the possibilities of escaping from the processes of interpreting the phenomena.

As a musician, she makes electronic music. She debuted with the album No End, released as an LP in 2018 by the Polish label Bocian Records. The second album Lynx (Interstellar Records, 2019) she recorded with Burkhard Stangl – a composer, a musician, and a prolific performer in the world of electro-acoustic improvisation. We Are The Alchemy (Interstellar Records 2021) was a collaboration with Michał Stępień – a member of a black metal band Mgła. Since her debut, she has participated in numerous music compilations and has also lent her soundtracks to a few film productions.

I am unable to limit my realizations to one or two mediums within visual arts. The multitude forms of expression allows me to tune in on many levels simultaneously. It includes multi-layered paintings bearing traces of the process and tools where I explore the mechanisms of memory filtered by emotions and moods; collages – my favorite form of describing the delicate space between the state of contemplation and the stream of thoughts; photographs supplemented with text – my way of sketching everyday moments, thoughts, impressions, fragments of dialogues… and finally music – which I like to think of as soundscapes where I explore issues related to the perception of time, but also do not cut myself off from the topics I mentioned before. Different albums raise different emotions and issues, but they all meet in a common story about the mind closing the memory or imagination in the image linked to the sound; about the experience conveyed in broken sentences or rain drops or steps. Being aware of some loss I push myself to reconstruct this dimension rejected in the process of perception by combining various sources of sound like analog synthesizers, field recordings or guitars to complement each other.

Short description:
Minimalist but diverse electronic music – in most without a beat, but with the tension built on the contrast between powerful and subtle, synthetic and natural sounds, as well as perfect space, virtual and natural (…) Meditative and thrifty pieces, guided by aesthetics performers from Raster-Noton.

Broadcasted:
BBC, PR3 Polish Radio, TOK FM, Antyradio,

Venues/Events: Viennale International Film Festival, Wien Modern, In the Closet, Ritual Festival, Avant Art Festival Warsaw and Wrocław, Tromso Kunstforening, Insomnia

In many ways worked with:
Jørgen Knudsen, Zenial, Antoine Chessex, Jerome Noetinger, Mats Gustafsson, Joachim Nordwall, Robert Schalinski (Column One), Wojciech Benicewicz, Alameda 5, X:Navi-Et, Burkhard Stangl, Geir Jenssen, Michał Stępień, Alan Waddington.

Reviews:

Absorbingly otherworldly and brilliant debut of noirish ambient electronics from Joanna John, who steps out of the shadows as a graphic designer for Biosphere, Bocian and Art Zoyd Studios releases to present her musical recordings – a big tip to fans of Teresa Winter and Felicia Atkinson (…)

She limns the illusive feeling of altered states of consciousness, using half-heard vocals, treacly metallic pulses, and a mix of spacious synths and floating field recordings to connote the para-dimensional logic of heavy-lidded, intoxicated mindframes (…)

Her music induce a deliciously woozy state with amorphous, intimate synth sculpture, pitter patter rhythms and just as you think you’ve grasped her sound, she flips the script with a tarry streak of slo-mo darkwave dance music where you almost expect ToC’s Camella Lobo to join in. Then fittingly come followed by the dark post-punk basslines, steepled vocal and creepy chamber atmosphere with the viscous curdle of her Chris & Cosey-like finale (…)

Quietly promising story.
– Boomkat

At some point you want to dance, but you want to listen to it even more.
– The Wire

A Polish girl living on the Norwegian island of Senja*, graduated from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and above all a visual artist, although to say “above all” is a terrible underestimate of this delicate but firmly sewn debut album with minimalist but diverse electronic music. In most parts without beat, but with the tension built on the contrast between powerful and subtle, synthetic and natural sounds, as well as perfect space, virtual and natural.

The best illustration of these features can be found in the First Morning Out, though it is also the most meditative and thrifty piece, guided by aesthetics performers from Raster-Noton. The album surprises for a long time until the appearance of the vocal part in Here Warmth is Transmitted and all its colorful qualities are exquisitely mastered by Mikołaj Bugajak (NOON). On Record Store Day, Joanna John will perform in the Spatif Club in Warsaw together with Burkhard Stangl
– Bartek Chaciński, Polityka

Joanna’s album is best enjoyed at night. With eyes closed. Or walking through the deep snow in the middle of some wasteland. The mood is built here by a simple meter, archaic synthesizers and subtle distortions introducing erotic tension. Into electronic loops, John brings acoustic solutions, combines Lem with the Moomins, follows more intuition than rules of composition.
– Vice

Alchemy is a mystical transformation of the basic into the noble. But it also means revealing a deep, primary substance of things through the elements. The sonic laboratory on this album comprises isolated, pure ingredients gradually and precisely processed into astonishing coherence and harmony. From the hum of drones, the slow clangour of guitar, the shimmer of electronics, cosmoses eventually emerge.
– Olga Drenda, The Guardian

Another interesting duo with a record of note is the electroacoustics possibilities explored by Joanna John & Burkhard Stangl entitled Lynx (Interstellar). As they mesh old/new technologies to form an encrusted drone the air around you may become tinted with the strange and familiar. Guitar strings, rain, intermittent percussion are seriously infused here, steeped into a sort of sonic folk music. They have a rustic flair with cosmic glitter tossed sparingly into the mix, making for the soundtrack to nature at a turning point in history. It’s a glassy world we are looking into, one that is defying the odds to keep certain traditions alive, and for all its warmth there is something unsettling just below the surface.
– Toneshift

Set up:
Computer, sound card, contact mics, objects, synthesizer/s

Technical rider:
1 table and a glass of water
L + R output jacks and cables to be connected directly to my sound card
L + R speakers, subwoofer, monitor speaker/s
mixer and a person behind it
*for visuals: depending on the setup / this info will be sent by email

Hospitality rider and travel requirements:
flights from Tromsø (TOS) preferably with SAS or Norwegian
hotel ****
local transfers / preferably a taxi
food and drinks at the backstage / no allergies
3 people on a guest list
the info sheet with the time for a soundcheck, addresses, phone numbers, etc. sent in one email or a PDF file at least three days before the gig, please.

Photo:

Photo credits: Geir Aule Jenssen

Photo credits: Ewa Lugowska

Photo credits: Ewa Ługowska

Photo credits: Ewa Ługowska

Photo credits: Marta Olszewska

Photo credits: Ewa Ługowska