Cuneiform
2004
Poetry Of Appliance
About This Album
Richard Leo Johnson's three previous releases found the acoustic guitarist in predominantly solo settings, occasionally augmented by percussionists and other guest musicians. 2004's Poetry of Appliance, his first release for the Cuneiform label, sets the Arkansas native in front of his first stable group, theremin player and violinist Ricardo Ochoa and electronics expert Andrew Ripley. The space age atmospherics of Ochoa and Ripley never overshadow Johnson's playing; indeed, Ochoa's theremin meshes perfectly with Johnson's guitars on the simply lovely "Her to Hymn," and Ripley's almost dub-like waves of sound are a perfect counterpoint to Johnson's overdubbed guitars on the driving "Glide Path." Playing 6-, 12-, and 18-string guitars (the last a double-neck 6- and 12-string that Johnson has tuned to a peculiar scale), Johnson takes his various influences -- mostly Leo Kottke and John Fahey's playful disregard for acoustic convention and John McLaughlin's wide-ranging, cross-genre expressiveness -- and distills them into a uniquely personal sound that's rooted in folk and the more experimental end of new age music but doesn't quite belong in either category. Difficult to categorize, then, but marvelous to hear. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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