Carlos Niño Music
Josh Johnson is so very Special! In Tone, Creativity, Techniques, Experimentation, and Energetic Presence. Stoked deeply for this new album! Pre-order of the LP in effect. Highly recommended!
Celebrate the release of Josh Johnson's solo album 'Unusual Object' with us – Josh, Paul Bryan and Northern Spy Records – while we listen to the album front to back.
Wondering how the %^#$ he made it sound like this? Join the chat and ask questions.
It feels good to listen together, and we seriously look forward to hanging with you.
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Unusual Object. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
releases April 5, 2024
$12USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
beautiful package with printed inner-sleeve and spine-wrap obi strip.
Includes digital pre-order of Unusual Object.
You get 2 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
shipping out on or around April 5, 2024
Purchasable with gift card
$25USDor more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
deluxe wallet with printed inner-sleeve
Includes digital pre-order of Unusual Object.
You get 2 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
shipping out on or around April 5, 2024
Purchasable with gift card
$16USDor more
T-Shirt/Shirt
screen-printed on the Shaka Wear heavyweight long-sleeve blank!
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 Unusal 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.
Johnson is a highly in-demand collaborator, working often with Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill and The Chicago Underground Quartet. He produced and played on Meshell Ndegeocello’s 2024 Grammy-winning The Omnichord Real Book and worked for many years as musical director for Leon Bridges. He’s appeared on recordings by Broken Bells, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Harry Styles and his playing shines brilliantly on the Jeff Parker ETA Quartet’s Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy. Johnson indeed is an indelible part of the Los Angeles scene that gave shape to André 3000’s audaciously transcendent New Blue Sun. But Johnson is no mere supporting character.
Last year, he made a change. Pulling away from some of his more rigid gigs, Johnson chose to venture further into the realms of his own playing and to further sharpen his own compositional voice. Unusual Object, Johnson says, “is a development and documentation of a more personal world of sound.” This development has been ongoing, for sure, but often in the context of other people’s music. With Unusual Object Johnson asks: “What’s it like for me to create the context for my sound, to frame it myself?”
The answer is the spare but endlessly engaging Unusual Object, a work of futuristic jazz and modern composition that will appeal to fans of everything from Oneohtrix Point Never to Shabaka Hutchings, from Plaid to Ornette Coleman.
credits
releases April 5, 2024
All sounds by Josh Johnson; except “Quince” which contains drum samples by Aaron Steele
All compositions and arrangements by Josh Johnson (Sky and City Music, BMI); except “All Alone” by Mal Waldron
Produced by Josh Johnson & Paul Bryan
Recorded by Paul Bryan in Pacific Palisades & Josh Johnson in Glassell Park
Mixed by Paul Bryan
Mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters
Lacquer cut by Phil Rodriguez at Elysian Masters
Sequenced by Josh Johnson, Paul Bryan, & Anna Butterss
Design and Layout by Bucky Boudreau
supported by 34 fans who also own “Unusual Object”
My god, what an absolutely incredible Suite. I'll admit, I've struggled to get into Pharoah Sanders due to diving headfirst into some of his most challenging catalogue and that never worked. This is the perfect place to restart. Floating Points is new for me and I can honestly say I've never heard synthesizer music this lush and organic before. the LSO is just perfect. This is one of those albums that any serious music fan needs in their life. The perfect swan song for the great Pharaoh! 5/5 ClassyMusicSnob
supported by 33 fans who also own “Unusual Object”
I was brought here after listening to a live performance of Makaya's on you tube. I instantly loved the song Holy Lands so much that I had to see if the album version was the same rendition as the live one. Then I listened to the whole album! Universal Beings is a just a groove... It's a mix of traditional and something new, very nice. pandr1900