Juozas Milašius - guitars, electronics.

Juozas Milašius is perhaps the best Lithuanian exponent of Vilnius Jazz’s stylistics. He has actively participated in this jazz forum, presenting its faithful audience with the opportunity to observe his evolution.

Guitarist, composer and organiser of various performances, enfant terrible of Lithuanian jazz scene. It would be difficult to find another Lithuanian jazzman, which has caused so many passionate discussions as did experimenter and conceptualist Juozas Milašius. Having emerged on jazz scene in 1986, he made his name as the most uncompromising jazzman in Lithuania. His experiments with total free, noise, and alternative means of sound production have provoked both staunch sympathy and categorical opposition. 

Enthralled with guitar Juozas Milašius has explored its possibilities in various projects (including staged) where he collaborated with performers of improvised and electronic music and sound artists; as the love manifesto for his instrument he formed guitar ensembles Gitarmanija and Auksinės gitaros (Golden Guitars). Having added computers to his instrumental arsenal, Milašius most often performs solo, sometimes teaming up with performers of experimental electronic music such as Darius Čiuta or Kouhei Matsunaga, an exponent of Japanese minimalist and industrial electronic music.

The guitarist has collaborated with Petras Vyšniauskas, Vladimir Chekasin, Vytautas Labutis, Vladimir Tarasov, Tomas Kutavičius, Dalius Naujokaitis, Skirmantas Sasnauskas, as well as in international formations with Jim Meneses, Martin Schutz, Hans Koch, Fredy Studer, Sainkho Namchilak, Ned Rothenberg, Lindsay Cooper, Jimmy Owens, Jonas Mekas, Dror Feiler, Luc Houtkamp, and Saadet Turkoz; has participated in performances; composes for film and theatre.

This is his ninth performance in Vilnius Jazz. In the past he took part in eight festivals appearing in twelve projects, among them Milašius Power Trio (2003) which has astounded audience with its forceful sound avalanche. This time he named his project LĖTAI ar SLOW ar SSLOWW  (which should mean extremely slow). Admitting that “he has been actively living in the front of sound experiments for eternity”, the composer claims that “currently he is possessed by the concept of SLOW in sound formation. And having discovered himself in noise culture, his primal SLOW sometimes becomes BLOODY SLOW in sound formation process. Time is being stopped in sound, conflict of sound waves, mutating meeting.” He presents the concept of his project:

SLOW
Anti-form
Ignorance
Quaver
Frequency
Trembling
Guitar
Vibration
Time
Black
White
Green
Simple

© Jūratė Kučinskaitė