Chuck Johnson / The Cinder Grove
Text by Takeshi Goda
LP/DL : VDSQ-027
Chuck Johnson : pedal steel guitar, synthesizers, Yamaha electronic organ, treatments
with:
Sarah Davachi : piano
Marielle V. Jakobsons : violin
Hilary Lewis : violin and viola
Crystal Pascucci : cello
Side A
1. raz-de-marée
2. serotiny
3. constellation
Side B
1. Red Branch Bell
2. The Laurel
All music composed by Chuck Johnson and published by Sruti Music (ASCAP)
Recorded and mixed by Chuck Johnson at Cirrus Oxide in Oakland, California
String ensemble conducted by Jason Hoopes and recorded by The Norman Conquest at Expression in Emeryville, California
Piano recorded by Sarah Davachi in Los Angeles, California
Mastered by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering in Berlin, Germany
Front cover "Geschenk der Seherin" by Johannes Schebler
Layout and design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN
http://www.chuckjohnson.net/
The reverberations of a pedal steel guitar awaken a forest of memories.
VDSQ (Vin Du Select Qualitite) was founded in 2009 with the aim of introducing instrumental solo acoustic guitar music rooted in blues and folk. In recent years, they have expanded the scope of their work to include not only solo acoustic guitar, but also electric guitar and ensembles with other instruments. The symbol of such expansion is Chuck Johnson (now 52), a composer/guitarist living in Oakland, California.
Johnson has been active as a guitarist in indie rock bands such as Spatula, Idyll Swords, Shark Quest, and Pykrete in North Carolina on the East Coast since the 1990s, and has been playing blues-influenced acoustic guitar and pedal steel guitar since then. In the late 90's, he released some improvised solo guitar works under the name Ivanovich. He moved to California in 2008 and began his solo career in earnest in 2010, releasing a trilogy of solo acoustic works, A Struggle Not A Thought (2011), Crows In The Basilica (2013), and Blood Moon Boulder (2015). After that, he started to create his sound mainly with pedal steel guitars, and his first album on VDSQ, "Balsams" (2017), incorporates synthesizers as well, and uses studio editing to create a multi-layered sound. It was the result of his skill as a sound creator working on soundtracks for movies and TV shows, which he applied to his solo work.
Three years since then, he expanded the possibilities of the pedal steel guitar and added piano and strings to create a more imaginative sound with this album. Even if you know that VDSQ is a label specializing in guitars, few people would recognize this record as a guitar album. And in fact, when I was checking out recent releases on VDSQ's Bandcamp and listened to this album, I had to double-check the URL, thinking that I had accidentally jumped to another label's site. At first listen, it resembles ambient music with synthesizers or modern classical works with strings. However, the layers of lustrous long tones are unmistakably the vibrations of steel strings, and the gliding pitch changes convey the delicate pitch swings characteristic of the pedal steel guitar. Often used in country music, the pedal steel guitar is an instrument that symbolizes Americana (American roots music), and its detailed tone is nostalgic even for non-Americans. The sound of Chuck Johnson's pedal steel guitar is like the soundtrack of a dream world trying to grasp a distant memory that emerges like a mirage.
The Cinder Grove is a reference to the landscape destroyed by the California wildfires of 2020. In fact, the studio and residence that Johnson had dreamed of building outside of Oakland had to be abandoned due to the danger of wildfire. In addition to wildfires, many other places and landscapes have been lost in the world around us. The theme of this album is nostalgia for the landscapes that are destroyed and lost, as well as hope for the next landscapes that will surely be reborn. In terms of sound, the reverberation data from the lost studio in the suburbs of Oakland and the burned down sequoia forest were analyzed and applied to the sound creation in the studio. In other words, it is a reproduction of the acoustic memory of the space. Chuck Johnson's "Ode to the Lost" evokes nostalgia in the depths of the listener's heart, and I would like to call it environmental music for the heart common to all people. (March 31, 2021)
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