IJO
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IJO (born Audrius Vaitiekūnas April 17, 1983, Klaipėda, Lithuania) is an independent Lithuanian musician and songwriter.
He studied German pedagogics for more than three years but eventually neglected his studies because of the music. As he says “I can give away a lot for the music”. However, after some time he finished the studies and became an English and German languages teacher.[citation needed]
The debut album of IJO called Melancholika was released on Surfaces net label (www.surfaces.tinkle.lt) in the autumn of 2003. It is a beautiful dark ambient album, however it was not widely acclaimed. The Driw Play EP is different – it is a fantastic instrumental electronic music. This is new not only to the sound of IJO– it is also a new thing in the Lithuanian electronic scene.
He enjoys the spaces of 250 bpm breaks and his jocosity has turned to be an avant-garde electronica which is possibly the most important part of his musical personality. But the work he has accomplished in this release of Sutemos net label (www.sutemos.net) will surprise not only Lithuanian music lovers.
IJO has composed music for various Lithuanian bands, advertisements and independent motion pictures.
"My music depends on how I am feeling at the moment. Sometimes I want to create a very sad music so that you even want to cry...Sometimes I feel like creating something absolutely chaotic, fast and harmful for the brain. I don‘t want to bind myself to one particular musical style. Sometimes it is fun to create a very complexed stuff...Sometimes a couple of notes are more than enough..." - IJO explains about his feelings towards creation of music and his EP album, "The Driw Play EP is a pure copy of my sadness. This is me. This is my love. My pain. My longing. My experiences. My memories. Why The Driw Play? I didn't find a suitable name for any of the tracks. Particular names won‘t reflect the essence that is drawn by sound. So I have picked up the names that put the listener into no frames and does not make him imagine particular things. He has the freedom of his imagination."[citation needed]
On 22 April 2006 he played a gig at a largest movie theater in Klaipėda, Lithuania alongside various DJs, one of whom was Ceephax, brother of Squarepusher, the person who influenced IJO in many ways.
The new album "Computer Pop" was released on July 25 2006 under the same label where The Driw Play was released two years ago. IJO talks about the album through sutemos.net: "I know that everybody is looking forward to something like The Driw Play EP but I am not going to create such kind of music any more. I really don't want to and I am not afraid to disappoint anybody. I create music for myself, but of course, it is always nice to know that somebody appreciates what I do. Computer Pop EP contains the tracks that were created right after The Driw Play EP as I had the same mood. There are also some new tracks that retain the same range of colours. The rest of my releases will be totally different from this one".[citation needed]
On December 2006, the well-acclaimed German net label "Plainaudio" has released IJO's four-tracked EP and commented it as "...of highly sophisticated Drill&Bass from the last 5 years".[citation needed]
IJO is currently residing in London, UK where he continues to pursue his music career.
[edit] Discography
Melancholika (2003), released under surfaces net label
The Driw Play EP (2004), released under sutemos net label
Computer Pop (2006), released under sutemos net label
