Lo'Jo

Lo'jo comes from Angers in the Loire Valley where they have been at the epicenter of an extended counter-cultural tribe of musicians, painters, poets, film-makers, acrobats, street performers and circus artists for more than 20 years.

Lead singer and lyricist Denis Péan and violinist Guillaume Bourreau formed the early nucleus of Lo'Jo Triban, as it was then known, which went on to tour Europe with street theatre group Jo Bithume in the late 1980s before releasing their first full-length CD entitled Fils de Zamal in 1992. Three more CDs have followed including this year's Au Cabaret Sauvage, partly produced by guitarist and long-time member of the Lo'Jo tribe Justin Adams.

Traveling is part of the creative process for Lo'Jo, and the group have roamed the four corners of the Earth performing and more importantly meeting and collaborating with sympathetic souls. In 2001 they helped to organize the first Festival in the Desert in the sandy vastness of the Sahara, an event which has since taken on an almost mythical status.

Powered by the rhythm section of Nicholas "Kham" Meslien on bass and Matthieu Rousseau on drums, and fronted by the unmistakable vocal sound of the Nid El Mourid sisters, Yamina and Nadia, Lo'Jo have grafted together all their musical loves and obsessions like French chanson, Afro-beat, gypsy, Indian, funk, dub, Arabic, Berber and African music into a sound which you're unlikely to hear anywhere else on the planet or forget in a long, long while.

— Courtesy Calabash Music