João Pais

Born in Porto in 1980, he is a drummer, percussionist, and cymbalsmith whose approach treats the making of instruments as inseparable from composition. He fabricates custom cymbals and gongs for specific recordings, shaping the timbral outcome before a note is played. He has performed and recorded with groups including HHY and the Macumbas, Sektor 304, Talea Jacta, and Paisiel, and collaborated with Z'EV, Evan Parker, and Fritz Hauser. His solo work, including the album Membrana, pursues what he calls ethno techno: a tension between mechanical loops and organic ritual, dancefloor momentum and circular mantra.