João Esteves da Silva

João was born in the mid 90s into a family of musicians, mostly pianists. His passion for music, however, only came much later, when he was already at university. A lover of abstract art since his childhood, he immediately clicked with avant-garde music, which at the time struck him as a sort of sonic equivalent of the latter. He tried to take conventional piano lessons at some point, but never went very far, ending up developing his own unorthodox approach to the instrument, largely inspired by the likes of Thelonious Monk or John Cage. Anyway, playing-composing is far from his main musical activity. Listening is. An avid record collector, he is constantly listening to music (of all sorts), and admits being totally addicted. Criticism is, for him, a way of sharing his passion and hopefully helping others discover stuff he finds worthwhile. Also trained in philosophy, he believes, somewhat controversially, that, though neither philosophy nor criticism are rigorous sciences, criticism is nonetheless more akin to a rigorous science than philosophy is.