Felipe Zenicola

Felipe Zenicola was born in 1981 in Rio de Janeiro and started playing the electric bass at the age of 15. One year after taking regular classes, he continued practicing and playing as a self-thought musician. Coming essentially from a rock background, in 2000 Felipe started drawing interest for experimental music, free jazz and free forms of improvisation. Few years later, when Rio´s exploratory music scene was growing exponentially around Plano B venue in Lapa, Zenicola was able to play regularly and that was an important moment for developing his approach towards improvisation and new ways of handling the instrument. In 2010 Zenicola started Chinese Cookie Poets, together with Marcos Campello and Renato Godoy, one of the most acclaimed experimental music bands in Brazil. The CCP experience was key for consolidating his unique playing that explores extended techniques, a heavy, frantic and cathartic way of dealing with the bass strings, low ambient/drones, minimal ostinatos and complex rhythmic patterns: a blend which makes him a very singular voice in the electric bass language today. Since 2014 Felipe has been collaborating regularly with Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, with whom has released two albums so far: Botafogo (Bocian/QTV) and New Brazilian Funk (PNL). For the past 15 years Zenicola has collaborated in several projects, records and concerts with great minds from different sonic planets and parts of the globe, such as Zbigniew Karkowski, Yoshihide Otomo, Negro Leo, Paal Nilssen-Love , Julie Kjær, Tetuzi Akiyama, J-P Caron, Frode Gjerstad, Arto Lindsay, Marcela Lucatelli, Cadu Tenório, Sanannda Acácia, Lars Greve, Ava Rocha, Jards Macalé, and Bill Orcutt.