bio
“Up The Turret Mil sets its own standard.” Lyn Horton, allaboutjazz.com
Ignite a Noise is home to trumpet|laptop improviser Rich Johnson.
The fourth release on Eivind Opsvik’s Loyal Label, Up the Turret Mil is a collection of eleven generously diverse tracks. Many of the songs began as experiments with Ableton Live, a laptop, and electronic-acoustic treatments on the trumpet. A vast majority of the sounds throughout the recording are sculpted out of Johnson’s sampled trumpet playing, manipulated with a custom built controller running Ableton with various alternate controllers including iPhones and Wiimotes
Starting quietly, the album smolders over the opening two tracks. The title of the first track is taken from a line in Joanna Newsome’s album “Ys” and tries to capture the feeling of “Squinting Skyward”. Johnson lays down simple samples of saxophonist Jason Rigby, keyboard and bass and mixes them with slow building glitched-out trumpet. One of Johnson’s favorite writers, Jack London’s book “Star Rover” was the inspiration for the second track. Its story of entering trance states to “walk among the stars and experience portions of past lives” is the inspiration behind the mix of laptop manipulated trumpet wails and simple melodies. “Ignite a Noise” does just that, with trumpet and skittish electronic rhythms colliding in a stuttering happiness. The album continues with pieces ranging in influence from slow core, jazz, folk, experimental ambient and musique concrète.
Johnson has already started to receive critical praise for Up the Turret Mil. Dave Douglas, John McNeil, and Taylor Ho Bynum invited Johnson to be part of the 2008 Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT) after hearing the record.
On his Greenleaf Music Blog Dave Douglas wrote, “Here’s a great sample of new music made from trumpet.”
Themilkfactory.co.uk added, “Rich Johnson’s debut album is a vastly eclectic and thrilling collection which never quite settles for one genre or another, yet manages to remain fluid and consistent all the way through. Johnson has created with Up The Turret Mil a pretty impressive and unique record and positioned himself alongside some of the most exciting contemporary jazz musicians around in the process.”
Peter Ekman of adequacy.net said, “Up the Turret Mil dodges the mega-crescendo format that underwrites so much noise, ambient and harsh alike. Rich Johnson has built an appealing, occasionally beautiful theater for the micro dramas of our quantum age.”
Terrascope.co.uk said, “Although the music is strange and experimental, it never becomes harsh or discordant, maintaining an inner harmony and a fragile surrealism, vibrant yet controlled. Definitely a grower “Up the Turret Mil” is an album that can surprise every time it is heard, the lightness of touch just one of its many wonders.”
Beyond his work with Up the Turret Mil, Johnson has contributed as a sideman to a number of projects including Jason Rigby’s critically acclaimed 2006 Fresh Sounds New Talent recording “Translucent Space” and Opsvik & Jennings’ “A Dream I Used to Remember”(Loyal Label) and “Commuter Anthems” on the Rune Grammofon label. He also curates a music series at the Brooklyn performance space IBeam.
Contact:
rj@igniteanoise.com
Ignite a Noise
www.loyallabel.com