IJO

The beginning stages of IJO’s musical career took place in the intersection of dark ambient, drum’n’bass and drill’n’bass styles. Always inspired to create music he recorded his first piano compositions to tape recorder when he was only 6 years old!

In 1995 he was overwhelmed by the highly energetic sound of Jungle and Drum&Bass and therefore started focusing his production on that particular kind of style. His constant flow of creativity didn’t seem to end and so the amount of tracks (not only D&B, but also Ambient, Electronica and Jazz) grew bigger and bigger. His approach to music expanded again in 2001 when he discovered Aphex Twin’s “drukqs” and Squarepusher’s “Go Plastic!” – two pivotal albums that broadened his view of how far “Drum&Bass” could (and should!) go. Later the talented producer moved on to exploring the more accessible easy listening, ambient and IDM territories (though not renouncing his personal attachment to twisted drum’n’bass). Yet even this lighter musical material bore the traces of his experiments with darker and heavier styles, manifested in syncopated polyrhythmic beats and carefully crafted atmospheres.

The real breakthrough in his career came when his light and jazzy The Driw Play EP was released by the online label Sutemos, after which IJO became an obligatory participant of major electronic music festivals and audiovisual projects in Lithuania, much to the listeners’ delight. “…my music is based on my mood. I am really unstable – I like creating ambient music and I like to create chaos. I don’t like to be restrained to just one musical direction because I want to be versatile in music. It has to be interesting and emotional”.

Being an active part of the Lithuanian electronic music scene, IJO already performed live with German IDM combo Funkstorung, Ceephax, Luke Vibert, Plaid, A Guy Called Gerald, Ed Rush, Remarc, Murcof amongst many other.

Find out what that sounds like listening to his earlier releases. Debuting with an Ambient album on Surfaces in 2003, Ijo put out another album and an additional EP on Sutemos during the following years. Furthermore, his tracks and remixes appeared on various compilations.

Restless and inventive and always looking to evolve his craft in fresh directions, IJO has some serious talent to share.