Date: 11/12/2017
Time: 12:30pm
Venue: The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003)
Ticket: $20 (for two couples comp tickets are available. Please mail your names to sohrab.saadat@gmail.com)
Genre: World/Chanson/French trad.

Since they first got together in 1982, in a tiny village near Angiers, France, Lo’Jo have been one of the most eclectic, eccentric and mesmerizing musical collectives that Europe has ever produced. Like their British contemporaries, The Mekons, Lo’Jo are globetrotting legends and musical shapeshifters who’ve gone through many incarnations, and they’ve incorporated theater and visual art into their music since the beginning.

Led by charismatic songwriter Denis Péan, Lo’Jo’s travels have taken them from collaborations with street theater groups and circuses to concerts in West Africa and the Sahara (including the very first edition of the now-legendary Festival au Desert), festival stages in Europe and North America and even a residency at Paris’ venerable Cabaret Sauvage. Along the way they managed to record several iconic albums — from their 1993 debut recording Fils de Zamal and their 1998 breakthrough Mojo Radio to their most recent album, 2012’s Cinema El Mundo.

All have shaped Lo’Jo’s unique sound, which reimagines classic French chanson spiked with sounds and instruments from all over the world. With over 30 years of musical vagabondage behind them, Lo’Jo shows no signs of slowing down yet, and continues to tour and record into their third decade.

Lo’Jo’s latest record [Fonetiq Flowers] was released this September.

There are times when we half-listen to an old friend natter, convinced we can predict what they’ll say next. There are times when we buy the latest book by a famous author, with no intention of actually reading it, simply because their prose shook us in our youth. How easily we forget that people change, progress, and rebel. We forget that life is often only a succession of rebirths. [FONETIQ FLOWERS] reminds us that life is in constant flux, as LO’JO seem born anew.

Denis Péan: chant, claviers, mélodica
Richard Bourreau: violon, alto, imzad
Nadia Nid El Mourid: chant, percussions
Yamina Nid El Mourid: chant, percussions, saxophone soprano, kamele n’goni
Baptiste Brondy: batterie
Alex Cochennec: basse, contrebasse

CD Review: Lo’Jo creating audio world cinema…?

Exclusive interview: Lo’Jo = French Yin/Yan

#LoJo