Joanna John

Joanna John’s music is best enjoyed at night. With eyes closed. Or walking through the deep snow in the middle of some wasteland. The mood is built here by a simple meter, archaic synthesizers and subtle distortions introducing erotic tension. Into electronic loops, John brings acoustic solutions and follows more intuition than rules of composition. Joanna is also a renowned audiovisual artist. She creates installations, short movies, collages, social actions, music. Currently lives in Tromsø.

Over the course of six songs Joanna limns the illusive feeling of altered states of consciousness, using half-heard vocals, treacly pulses, and a mix of spacious synths and floating organ tones to connote the para-dimensional logic of heavy-lidded, intoxicated mindframes.

Introducing herself with the quicksand base and barely buoyant whispers of ‘I can’t Remember How I Got Here’, the album continues to induce a deliciously woozy state with amorphous, intimate synth sculpture of ‘Imagined Truth’, while ‘First Morning Out’ dawns suspended organ tones and pitter patter rhythms recalling Felicia Atkinson works. And just as you think you’ve grasped her sound, ‘The Deepest Instinct Is Expressed In Running’ flips the script with a tarry streak of slo-mo darkwave dance music where you almost expect ToC’s Camella Lobo to join in, and fittingly comes followed by the dark post-punk bassline, steepled vocal and creepy chamber atmosphere of ‘Here Warmth Is Transmitted’, with the viscous curdle of her Chris & Cosey-like finale, ‘Nothing Is Changed But Everything Will Alter’ serving to close the first chapter in Joanna John’s quietly promising story.”

Boomkat: “Absorbingly otherworldly and brilliant debut of noirish ambient electronics from Joanna John, who steps out of the shadows as a graphic designer for Biosphere and Bocian releases to present her first musical recordings – a big tip to fans of Teresa Winter and Felicia Atkinson

Previous Artist
Boska
Next Artist
Julie Alapnes