Lonnie Holley

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1950, Lonnie Holley develops a body of work at the crossroads of experimental music, spoken word, free jazz, blues, and improvisation. Initially identified in the field of visual arts for his sculptures and assemblages made from found objects, he later begins a discography that extends the same intuitive and associative logic. His recordings, often built around free vocal streams, repetitive motifs and atmospheres of soul, gospel or ambient, take the form of fragmented narratives where memory, social history and daily life observations mingle. Lonnie Holley’s musical career begins in the mid-2000s, before the release Just Before Music in 2012, then Keeping a Record of It in 2013. He continues with MITH in 2018, National Freedom in 2020, Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection in 2021 in collaboration with Matthew E. White, then Oh Me Oh My in 2023. On stage, Lonnie Holley favors improvisation and open forms, in a register that links Afro-American traditions, sonic experimentation and spoken word poetry, which places him both in concert contexts and in programming linked to contemporary art.