Chuck
Johnson A Struggle Not a Thought SAAH070 CD / LP + Download (1st 100 pressed
on white vinyl) / MP3 Release Date: November 8, 2011
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Track Listing:
Last Moments at Chittor (4:20) - A Slender Thread (1:54)
- Down In Flames or Not At All (3:26) - Alight in the Nor'easter
(3:26) - Swallow the Sun (4:07) - The
Flying Spire Don't Have No Mercy (5:18) - Caldera Wires
(4:09) - Scene Shop Spectre (2:22) - Ochre Rubric
(4:05) - Dissevered (2:20) - The Stars Rose Behind Us
(4:13)
"Chuck Johnson's A Struggle, Not a Thought is both pensive
and dynamic, balancing sound and silence, and hinting at 20th-century
classical techniques and methods." - Kevin Macneil Brown, Dusted
Chuck Johnson is a
composer and musician currently residing in Oakland, CA, whose musical
acumen and resume is as diverse as it is impressive. He was a member
of Spatula, Idyll Swords, and Shark Quest - influential
bands in the Chapel Hill independent music scene of the 1990's and early
2000's, and his early influences of North Carolina Piedmont blues and
the "American Primitive" approach are widely evident , especially through
his contributions to Idyll Swords (Communion/Three Lobed) and
Shark Quest (Merge Records). He has composed music for several
feature-length documentaries, including Brett Ingram's award-winning
films Monster Road and Rocaterrania (as
a member of Shark Quest) and Cynthia Hill's Guestworker.
In addition to his work as a guitarist, Johnson performs electronic
music using homemade and analog instruments, creates interactive and
intermedia work with unusual interfaces, and works extensively with
just intonation tuning systems - all with an ear towards finding faults
and instabilities that might reveal latent beauty. To top it off, he
holds an MFA in electronic music from Mills College. For all of these
achievements, however, an album comprised strictly of his solo acoustic
guitar music has eluded him, although hints have abounded through various
compilation albums, the most recent snapshot surfacing last year via
the lauded Beyond Berkeley Guitar compilation (Tompkins
Square). Long in the making, A Struggle Not a Thought
is Johnson's full length debut, an album brimming with sparkling fingerstyle
compositions that are just as forward-thinking and jaw-dropping as any
revered documents by the steel-string compositional masters, both past
and present.
What is truly striking about A Struggle Not a Thought
is Chuck Johnson's ability to distill rich vistas and vivid panoramas
into succinct compositions - akin to Glenn Jones or Steffen
Basho-Junghans at their most concise and lyrical moments. From the
initial strumming of chiming steel-string found on opener "Last Moments
at Chittor", Johnson evokes an atmosphere of true intimacy, drawing
the listener in with his masterful technique and serenading them with
chiming currents of steel string beauty. "The Flying Spire Don't Have
No Mercy" is a propulsive 12-string cascade spilling into melodic, undulating
sound pools, while "The Stars Rose Behind Us" is like a perfect melding
of Jack Rose leather and Glenn Jones lace.
Tremendously expressive, A Struggle Not a Thought shows
us that a modern steel-string powerhouse has been lurking behind the
scenes for many moons now. Here's to inaugurating Chuck Johnson
into the pantheon of acoustic guitar players where he quite rightfully
belongs.
*Chuck Johnson is a former member of indie bands Spatula
and Shark Quest (both Merge Records) and Idyll Swords
(Communion, Three Lobed).
* Performed with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Kowald, Eugene Chadbourne,
Frank Gratkowsi, James Fei
* Appearances at Siren Fest, BENT 2004, Transmissions Festival, Signal+Noise,
the Festival of New American Music, and the San Francisco International
Film Festival.
* On tour November 2011 with Eric Carbonara, Trevor Healy and
Pairdown, East Coast USA.
* RIYL: Glenn Jones, Robbie Basho, Jack Rose, John Fahey, Sean Smith,
Peter Lang, William Tyler. CD:
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