Press:

MilkFactory.co.uk:
"'Rich Johnson’s debut album is a vastly eclectic and thrilling collection which never quite settles for one genre or another, yet manages to remain fluid and consistent all the way through. Johnson has created with Up The Turret Mil a pretty impressive and unique record and positioned himself alongside some of the most exciting contemporary jazz musicians around in the process."

Toxicpete.co.uk:
"'Up The Turret Mill', I suppose, could be likened to Terry Riley meets Stockhausen; take the more melodic, trance-like Riley and shake in some of Karlheinz's angular and spiky outpourings and you'll start to get a little closer to where Rich Johnson is going... His music has a feeling of intelligence from an intuitive perspective - it's as if the inner, slightly more introspective musician is vying with the outer, extroverted techno-wizard... 'Up The Turret Mil' by Rich Johnson is experimentation with heart and soul - there is a point to this work and there is an end product - if you can get your head aligned with Rich Johnson's oscillating musical world you might just find that heart and soul for yourself and be able to drink in its unique and quite intoxicating elixir - you might just find the gold in the potion..."

Vital Weekly
"Nicely atmospheric, put together in a nice way, good moves, nice pieces. I read in the press text that this is a grower and I think, you're damn right, this album is a grower. An odd bunch of pieces, more like a compilation, but then one in which all the pieces seem to fit in neatly. A grower indeed."

TerraScope.co.uk:
"Although the music is strange and experimental, it never becomes harsh or discordant, maintaining an inner harmony and a fragile surrealism, vibrant yet controlled. Definitely a grower “Up the Turret Mil” is an album that can surprise every time it is heard, the lightness of touch just one of its many wonders."

Cookshop
"One more gent that deserves some spouting off before the year's end, as some Norwegian label has seen fit to release his solo debut. Our dude hails from New York but has priorly gotten down with Nordics on a Rune Grammofon outinglast year. As eccentric as Opsvik & Jennings might be, it's no surprise now it was Rich also shaking that tree. Quite a nice axis of jazz/folk/laptop lunatics right there."

All About Jazz 1:
"Although a trumpeter by title, Johnson doesn't present a top-heavy brass record; his spartan delivery is the trick here, neither flooding the music with natural or manipulated sound. Choosing his words (notes) carefully, he divines this otherworld of buoyancy—he is just as apt to rely on guitar, or computer flutter as the center of a track. The netherworld Rich Johnson occupies makes ambient music interesting and improvisation unnaturally coherent."

All About Jazz 2:
"Though Up the Turret Mil follows the evolving electronica ideas, there is nothing experimental about these well thought-out compositions. Yes, there are computerized backdrops and processed rhythms, but Johnson's triumphs in giving the machine a soul by presenting music that has feeling as well technological advances. "

All About Jazz 3:
"Trumpeter Rich Johnson might be said to be engaging with the present; in a way, that's true of so few of his contemporaries. He produces music that's steeped in the culture of sampling, and similar examples of magpie-like curiosity. At the same time, he fashions music that is as striking as anything out there. This is an achievement that might be modest, especially in these days of seemingly diminishing musical returns. But Up the Turret Mil still bodes well for the future. "

LeicesterBangs.co.uk:
"The calm, serene and organic nature, of the majority of the CD, is augmented, not overshadowed by the avant-garde free-jazz intrusions."

Adequacy.net:
"Up the Turret Mil dodges the mega-crescendo format that underwrites so much noise, ambient and harsh alike. Rich Johnson has built an appealing, occasionally beautiful theater for the microdramas of our quantum age.."

WhisperinandHollerin.com :
"'Rich Johnson's atmospheric and rewarding debut album focuses on textures more than beats. It smoothly cuts and pastes laptop glitch with samples of trumpets, guitars and piano. The effect is to produce the type of lush experimental ambience that graces established labels like Leaf and Rune Grammofon. It comes as no surprise to learn that Johnson has already contributed to recordings on the latter. The minimalist tone makes it an album that creates a gentle mood and one which glides calmly rather than imposing on the listener. If the spirit is willing, the album's understated organic pulse is one that has the capacity to be both absorbing and transporting."

Rich Johnson
UP THE TURRET MIL
(LLCD004)

up the turret mil

“Up the Turret Mil” explores a mix of trumpets, guitars, and pianos combined with laptop glitch, sampling, and musique concrète. Many of the songs began as experiments with laptop and electronic-acoustic treatments on the trumpet and bridge Johnson’s many influences – from free jazz to folk music.

01. Squinting Skyward
02. Star Rover
03. Ignite a Noise
04. Harvester
05. The Loves of Zero
06. Shoreline Frequency
07. I Trap Totem Pulp
08. After a Tectonic Melt Purr
09. Following Transparency Monodies
10. Up the Turret Mil
11. Last Town Mile

Rich Johnson - trumpet, laptop, guitar and electronics

All compositions by Rich Johnson (modosonic)
Produced by Rich Johnson

modsonic.com

Press:

Rich Johnson UP THE TURRET MIL (LLCD004)

Rich Johnson
UP THE TURRET MIL
(LLCD004)