Poster: Josh Levi
Thursday October 17 * 7pm * $15-20 * TICKETS
Chuck Johnson is a California-based composer, producer, and musician. He approaches his work with an ear towards finding faults and instabilities that might reveal latent beauty, with a focus on pedal steel guitar, experimental electronics, alternate tuning systems, and composing for film and television. Recordings of his work have been published by Western Vinyl, VDSQ, Thrill Jockey, Temporary Residence, Kompakt, Ghostly, and Three Lobed Recordings.
Between 2011 and 2015 Johnson released a triptych of solo guitar LP’s – A Struggle Not A Thought, Crows in the Basilica, and Blood Moon Boulder – that have become touchstones of 21st Century acoustic guitar. Balsams, his first album to platform pedal steel guitar, was described by Pitchfork as “singular,” and “a mournful hymn built out of layers of sliding strings, cascading with a zenlike stateliness…” In 2019, he collaborated with Marielle V. Jakobsons to release their debut LP as Saariselka for Temporary Residence Ltd. The follow-up to Johnson’s acclaimed Balsams LP, The Cinder Grove delves further into the compositional possibilities of the pedal steel guitar in the context of chamber ensemble arrangements for strings, organ, and piano.
Johnson’s credits as a film composer include scores for the HBO series Burden of Proof and the popular PBS shows Somewhere South and A Chef’s Life. In 2009, he received an MFA in Electronic Music and Intermedia Art from Mills College, where he studied composition and electronic music with Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Chris Brown, John Bischoff, Laetita Sonami, and James Fei.
His work as a mixing and mastering engineer includes releases by Room40 records, No Quarter, Three Lobed Recordings, Temporary Residence, Bill Orcutt, Allison Russell, Nathan Salsburg, claire rousay, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Daniel Bachman, Body/Head, and more.
Amadou Kouyate (DC) is the 150th generation of the Kouyate lineage and has studied and performed Manding music since the age of three years old. Amadou is a dynamic djembe and koutiro drummer. He also plays the 21-string kora, which he learned first with his father, Djimo Kouyate and other master Diali -- oral historians/musicians -- of Manding tradition in West Africa. Amadou has brought his music to The Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Institution, Bristol Academy and Isle of Wight in England, Tim Festival in Brazil, as well as the Lowell, East-Lansing and Dayton National Folk Festivals. He collaborated with Sweet Honey in The Rock at Carnegie Hall and performed at the Victoria World Rhythm Festival.