John Also Bennett (b. 1987, Ohio), aka JAB, is a composer, flautist and multi-instrumentalist based in Greece who creates music that could be described as atmospheric, avant-garde, or minimalist. His work is characterized by the use of simple sonic ingredients to engage with empty spaces, time and resonance on a glacial scale to illuminate a complexity and magic inherent within everyday experience, or even apparent nothingness. He has released albums on labels such as Shelter Press, Kranky, and Seance Centre, as well as his own label Editions Basilic, among others. He has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia, scored short films and art installations, and published and curated the works of others, including those of his father, the avant-garde poet and mail artist John M. Bennett.
Στον Ελαιώνα / Ston Elaióna is his first album for Shelter Press since his 2019 solo debut Erg Herbe. Following two solo albums defined by outward facing temperaments - 2022’s Out there in the middle of nowhere (Poole Music), which used a lap steel guitar and generative oscillators to evoke the surreal landscapes of the South Dakota badlands, and the largely synthetic atmospheres of the 2024 anthology Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2 (Editions Basilic) - the shift in Bennett’s worldly circumstances offered an intuitive return to the calm, inward states of creative exploration that have historically defined JAB’s sound. With Ston Elaióna Bennett weaves a strikingly singular electroacoustic excursion for bass flute and Yamaha DX7ii, largely recorded in the golden haze of the early morning hours - bending time at the otherworldly juncture of consciousness and place. Translated from Greek as “In the Olive Grove”, Ston Elaióna is permeated with ambiences of the ancient and present world, guided into form by a playfully rigorous approach to sound.
Bennett has worked or collaborated in various forms with Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison, Jon Gibson, Mary Jane Leach, Pauline Anna Strom, Richard Horowitz & Sussan Deyhim, Giovanni di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau, John M. Bennett, Benjamin Bennett, Jay Glass Dubs / Wild Terrier Orchestra, FORMA, Seabat, LEYA, Spencer Clark, Peter Burr, Zin Taylor, Eva L’Hoest, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma, American Contemporary Music Ensemble, Sword Heaven, and Samuel Reinhard, among others. He has performed or exhibited at Center of Contemporary Art Tbilisi, Cafe Oto, INA GRM, The Museum of Cycladic Art, Ancienne Belgique, Rewire, Dark Mofo, Big Ears, Moogfest, Casino Luxembourg, The Museum of the Moving Image, Sundance Film Festival, Meakusma, Jue, Summer Nostos, KANAL-Center Pompidou, Semibreve, The Hirshhorn Smithsonian Museum, The Pinault Collection Bourse de Commerce, Ambient Church, The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, The Barbican Center, The White Hotel, Villa Lontana, Festival de Musica Visual de Lanzarote, Settantaventidue, Waking Life, Le Poisson Rouge, The Schoolhouse, and Skylab Gallery, among many other venues, warehouses, galleries, basements, and festivals.
General Contact, Commissions, Bookings: johnalsobennett@gmail.com
Publishing: Mute Song - simon.ballard@mute.com
Download CV (pdf)
Selected Discography:
Giovanni di Domenico, Pak Yan Lau and John Also Bennett - Tidal Perspectives (Editions Basilic, 2024)
John Also Bennett - Music For Save Rooms 1 & 2 (Editions Basilic, 2024)
CV & JAB - Klima (Editions Basilic, 2023)
JAB - Out there in the middle of nowhere (Poole Music, 2022)
Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison and John Also Bennett - S/T (Seance Centre, 2022)
JAB - Save Room 5 - Track on “A Little Night Music: Aural Apparitions from the Geographic North” Compilation (Geographic North, 2020)
CV & JAB - Saint-Gilles Lockdown in Three Parts - Track on "New Neighborhoods” Compilation (Freedom To Spend, 2020)
CV & JAB - Landscape Architecture (editions basilic, 2020)
JAB - Music For Save Rooms (editions basilic, 2020)
JAB - Indiana Blindfold - Track on "Field Works - Ultrasonic" Compilation (Temporary Residence, 2020)
JAB - Erg Herbe - LP (Shelter Press, 2019)
JAB - The Gallop - 7" Lathe Cut (In Context Music, 2019)
Forma - Semblance - LP / CD (Kranky, 2018)
CV & JAB - Zin Taylor's Thoughts of a Dot as it Travels a Surface - LP (Shelter Press, 2018)
CV & JAB - Seeing Redness, Plastic Fingers - Track on "Don't Look Now" Compilation (Geographic North, 2018)
Seabat - Outside The Disc - CD / CS (Vestibule, 2018)
CV & JAB - Chione - Track on "Disquiet, Vol. 1" Compilation (Unseen Music, 2017)
Jon Gibson - Jon Gibson’s Visitations - Flute & Electronics (Otoroku, 2017)
Forma - Physicalist - 2x LP / CD (Kranky, 2016)
Seabat - Synthus - CD (Beer On The Rug, 2015)
Seabat / Lucky Dragons - Peter Burr's Special Effect - Split LP (Vestibule, 2015)
Forma - Cool Haptics - 12" (The Bunker New York, 2014)
John Also Bennett - Talking Puddle - Track on "Ohio Volume One" Compilation (A Soundesign Recordings, 2014)
Seabat - Scattered Disc - LP / CS (Goldtimers / Seabat Worldwide, 2013)
Seabat - Crescent ParC - LP (Constellation Tatsu, 2012)
Seabat - Mountains Of Palawan - CS (Goldtimers, 2012)
Slime Detective - New Slime City - CS (Total Reality International, 2012)
Seabat - No Wake - CS (Hyperdelic, 2011)
Seabat - Rift Store - CS (S.B. Crypt, 2011)
Seabat - Understanding Holography - CDr (Celebrity Sex Tapes, 2010)
Eagle Nebula - Remnants - CS (Stochastic Releases, 2010)
Sword Heaven - Gone - Saxophone - (Load Records, 2010)
Eagle Nebula - s/t - CS (No Label, 2009)
Tuberculosis Ward - s/t - (Celebrity Sex Tapes, 2009)
Ginger Fetus - 3 Footer - Track on “Confluence Park” Compilation (Teen Action Records, 2009)
Out There Dudes / Biff Boff Barf - 2% Milf - Split 7” (Out There Home Entertainment, 2009)
Sinkane - s/t - Saxophone (Emergency Umbrella Records, 2009)
Eagle Nebula - Nebulosis - CS (Celebrity Sex Tapes, 2008)
Eagle Nebula / Wasteland Jazz Unit - Untitled Split - CS (Celebrity Sex Tapes, 2008)
John Bennett / Mike Vallera - Untitled Split - CS (Celebrity Sex Tapes, 2008)