Zam Johnson the Composer
In Berlin Germany -curriculum vitae
born and raised in los angeles, california, zam has worked in the record
industry, countless television commercials, film scores, and the avantgard music scene, in the United States, Europe and Japan.
during his high school time he began his career as a drummer, working in the los angeles club and studio scene.
in the early eighties he began promoting his synthesizer work, composing music for avantgarde film and dance, he teamed with painter norton wisdom, and formed the science and industry performance art group .. they toured the usa and europe. it was a big multi media event.
since 1988 zam is based in berlin, working as a composer for theatre, dance and film. he is very much involved in the theatre, dance, studio, concerts and the avantgarde music scene. his skills in performing electronic effects and sound scores make him one of the most demanded artist. zam is a master of performing all styles of acoustic and electronic drumming and percussion.
from 1989 he has been a steady member of 'tatoeba theatre danse grotesque', and is their main composer. 1993 he composed the music for the butoh film 'ju ni hitoe' or 'the twelve kimonos'. this film had its premier at the berlin film festival berlinale.
in march 1994 zam got an invitation and stipendium from the goethe-institut in tokio, japan to compose and perform live the music for ,'rabenstein - the collector' for 'tatoeba theatre danse grotesque'.
1995 he founded 'ten pen chii art factory' with sculptor joachim manger and the butoh dancer yumiko yoshioka.
the metal sculptures which are designed by joachim can also be played as a music instrument by zam.
in October 1996 they performed 'n-yoin', a big multi-media performance with 6 dancers and a 4.5 meter big metal sculpture, made out of 10.000 pipes. all of the music was also captured on zam's first solo cd 'n-yoin'.
Recently i work with Ulli Lenz the jazz pianist
and Paul Swing the great tombone & keyboardplayer
Between artgalleries,shows and musicfestivals i find the time to
to paint - this is my best way to relax.
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Here are some bits of a film :-)
JU - NI HITOE ODER DIE ENTDECKUNG DER SEELE - MyVideo
For my Painting please go to
Zam Johnson the painter
http://myspace.com/zamjohnsonpainter Zam Johnson the Painter