Gonçalo Almeida (Lisbon, 1978) is a Portuguese musician and composer based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. With a strong interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to his work, Gonçalo plays in a variety of projects that go from modern jazz, freejazz, jazzcore and free improvisation music, having shared the stage with improvisers such has Ab Baars, Balasz Pandi, Chris Speed, Carlos Zíngaro, Ig Henneman, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jasper Stadhouders, Jorrit Dijkstra, Luis Vicente, Luis Lopes, Martin van Duynhoven, Nina Hitz, Peter Jacquemyn, Rodrigo Amado, Susana Santos Silva,Tobias Klein, Wilbert de Joode, among others.​

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He is the founder/main composer/ bass player of Hydra Ensemble, Lama Trio, Albatre, The Attic and member of Spinifex, The Selva and Luis Vicente trio.

 

Gonçalo Almeida also collaborates frequently with audio-visual artists, modern dancers, poets and theatre makers, such as Arnold Dreyblatt, Julyen Hamilton, Rita Vilhena,Rutger Zuydervelt, (aka Machinefabriek), Ricardo Jacinto, Pierre Bastien, among others. Since 2001 has been touring internationally within several of these projects, in Europe, U.S, India and Japan.

 

Adding to a prolific publication of records on international labels from his various projects, Gonçalo Almeida created also his own digital label, Cylinder Recordings, in order to document and share material from his frequent and experimental encounters with other improvisers, making crossovers between musicians from different projects and researching on new collaborative paths.