Chuck Johnson & Fletcher Tucker - York

Chuck Johnson

Fletcher Tucker

FortyFive Cafe, York

Friday 26th October, 7.30pm

Delivered in conjunction with Stirling’s premier evening of outsider music, Golden Hum.

One of only three UK shows from these incredible guitar and electronics based experimentalists.

Chuck Johnson will be playing selections from his recent albums, including 2017’s landmark LP ‘Balsams’. Described by Pitchfork as a ‘fully realized sonic world’ and a ‘universe unto itself’, the album is a series of meditative soundscapes fashioned on pedal steel guitar and effects into diaphanous worlds of sound. Akin to Brian Eno’s ambient compositions, this is music that will transport you – ethereal, serene and magnificent.

Fletcher Tucker makes experimental folk music inspired by the natural environment of California’s Big Sur. Where his ‘deep inhabitation’ of the wild landscape gave rise to uniquely textured songs inspired by creeks, mossy groves and misty mountain paths, all culminating in critically acclaimed debut album ‘Cold Spring’ for Gnome Life Records.

‘Rich music that feels infinitely expressive… his guitar’s gentle twang sounds more like a desert with wafting tumbleweeds than a sky with drifting clouds. You can feel air moving, sand sifting, and sun baking as Johnson’s guitar chords gradually stretch across the horizon.’

8.1/10 Pitchfork

‘Graceful contemplations overflow… ethereal, emotionally expressive, painterly, intimate yet vast.’

‘Best of 2017’ Tiny Mix Tapes

‘Loops of pedal steel guitar that rest on the edge of dusk, just when the tumult of day subsides and seeps into the soul’s reflection.’

‘Best records of 2017’ NPR

‘Johnson epitomised and transcended the adventurous spirit of the New American Primitives scene, Balsams being a solo pedal steel record with an ambient bent that made it as close to Daniel Lanois’ work on Eno’s Apollo Soundtracks as it did any notional folk tradition.’

‘Best albums of 2017’ 8/10 UNCUT