Jeff Johnson

    Jeff Johnson

    Camano Island, Washington9 reviews across 9 releases

    ambientcelticfolknew age
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    Jeff Johnson is an American recording artist, composer and producer whose work began in Tigard, Oregon, where he founded Ark Records in 1977. His early recordings used vocal progressive rock, but his music soon became organized around literary, spiritual and place-based themes. The 1989 album Pilgrimage treated a journey through Europe as a sequence of sharply observed scenes, combining electric guitar with keyboards, jazz instrumentation and location recordings; its power came from restraint rather than distortion. By Songs from Albion III in 1994, made with Brian Dunning, Johnson had moved toward Celtic and traditional folk textures, pairing flute and uilleann pipes with contemporary rhythm instruments. Psalmus in 1996 brought chants and Celtic music into a darker modern worship setting, matching the Psalms' praise with their doubt and grief.

    In 1991, Johnson began his long recording partnership with Irish flutist Brian Dunning, a collaboration that continued through later Celtic, Christmas and instrumental projects. Johnson established the contemplative worship service Selah in 1999, then continued releasing solo and collaborative music after Vespers - light into Light and Stars in the Morning East appeared in 2005. Ark Records remained the outlet for much of this work, and Johnson's later recordings included further instrumental pieces and worship meditations. Dunning died in 2022; Johnson subsequently issued the retrospective albums Coming, Going and Winter Songs, drawing on their more than three decades of work together. Johnson remained active afterward, releasing Eremo with John Van Deusen and Spinning on a Cosmic Dime with Phil Keaggy in 2024.

    9 releases reviewed