Joe Balestreri walks with one foot in popular music - funk, rock, jazz, and house - and the other in experimental music - digital musique concrete. He has played in and written for bands performing everything from acid-jazz to New Orleans funk and zydeco to prog-rock and blues to "cinematic death mambo." Over the last 15 years, you might have seen Joe playing trumpet, guitar, and singing with great acts like Zigaboo Modeliste, Albino!, Brown Baggin, Sfunk, Hip Grease, Gumbohead, Torque, IBOPA, Futon Torpedo, Cruton Tomato, Yukon Tornado, and Stone Gypsy. He's also composed contemporary classical music for various instrumental ensembles, and penned plenty of good ol' fashioned pop songs.

Joe's interest in musique concrete, or found-sound-based music, began while studying composition with David Vayo at IWU. Being a lover of all sounds, great and small, he's recorded an arsenal of high-quality environmental soundscapes, as well as noises from machines and other random objects. Combining and editing them in the computer yields music that is sometimes ethereal, sometimes intensely rhythmic. When recording, Joe often juxtaposes found sounds with musical instruments... he asks, "Why can't crickets and people make music together?"

Currently, Joe resides in Oakland, CA with his wife Laura. You can catch him performing all over the West Coast with his rock band The Flux, playing West African-infused jam-funk-rock.