Josh Johnson, one part of Jeff Parker’s incredible ETA quartet with Anna Butterss and Jay Bellerose, marks his return with his stunning new single “Free Mechanical.” The new single comes along with the announcement of his upcoming new album Unusual Objects.
Unusual Object is a major statement from him focusing on the balance between those two elements, his lucid alto playing and the twisting and molding of that sound via pedals into a structure that supports and elevates it. Worth noting, is that this release is comprised of mostly live performances rather than studio concoctions.
Josh Johnson’s latest solo record, Unusual Object is a world of sound. Johnson’s fantastically processed saxophone and subtle samples and grooves give this work a sort of cyberpunk ambient jazz feel that occasionally crosses into realms akin to classic Warp Records and Jon Hassell’s dreamworld tonalities. But however fantastical and dreamlike Unusual Object may be, these qualities only serve to bring the listener closer to Johnson, to his breath, his sense of song. What, after all, could be more intimate than sitting inside someone’s fantasies and dreams?
Johnson executes this all with an indelible elegance, establishing him as a worthy contemporary of fellow modern avant-garde composers like Lea Bertucci, Ian William Craig, and Kelly Moran. Like the latter’s carefully considered prepared piano compositions, Unusual Object is stately, personal, and patently modern.
How are we feeling about Josh Johnson’s new single “Free Mechanical”?
