“I’ve lost count of the number of unfinished records on my laptop,” Glen Johnson told this writer back in 2019, in an interview for another online publication, with a reliable mix of mystery and anticipation-stoking, ripe for keeping long-term followers on simmering standby. Since then, several collaborator-centric conceptions have been brought to fruition, as part of the lateral pathfinding for his ongoing post-Piano Magic activities.
This has seen Johnson surfacing through releases from Future Conditional, Theory Of Ghosts and in separate eponymic duos with Kristina Pulejkova as well as former bandmate Cédric Pin, alongside work running the Second Language label and coordinating archival vinyl outings for his former group. Enter now, the long-in-the-works debut long-player from Statues In Fog, possibly one of the several previously incomplete things Johnson was hinting at a half a decade or so ago.Having fleetingly appeared on two of the three terrific Les Disques du Crépuscule-inspired multi-artist compilations put out by Second Language since 2020, this self-titled full-length digital / cassette-based set finally gives the Johnson-helmed project room to roam fully into a range of imaginative sonic spaces.
Chiselled into shape centrally by Johnson, from extended label family member contributions supplied remotely from the likes of violinist Sarah Kemp (Brave Timbers, The Declining Winter, et al), flautist / cellist Katie English (Isnaj Dui, Littlebow), multi-instrumentalist David Rothon (AKA Clay Pipe Music lynchpin D Rothon), vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Hilary Robinson, aforementioned synthesist Cédric Pin, vocalist Francesca La Nave and others, the album leans into both the revolving door approach of Piano Magic’s seminal Low Birth Weight LP and the endeavour’s nominative determinism. In the latter respect, this means from a distance that the eleven gathered largely wordless pieces possess a hazy quality, but when examined up-close their substance matter is revealed to be far more solidly rendered. Therefore, as very much a maze-like collection to get lost in, Johnson and company take a variety of directions whilst remaining within a self-contained sound world.Hence, we’re taken through gorgeous passages of airy neo-classical-tinged ambience and ululations (“Brook Rotation”, “Onirique” and “It’s Been Raining All Day”); polished-up takes on primordial Popular Mechanics-era Piano Magic (“Nightshift” and “The Moon On A String”); electro-acoustic dubscapes (“The Lonely Sea” and “Anhedonia”); the poetry-reading-led folktronica (“Flight Arches”); cinematic percussive explorations with welcome dual nods to Lakuna’s underrated 4AD curio Castles Of Crime and OMD’s Dazzle Ships (“Some Sort Of Magic” and “Azadeh”); and Delia Derbyshire-does-kosmische soundtrack infusions (“Communiqué”).
Evocative, enigmatic and enthralling throughout, for a collection that took years to mature on Glen Johnson’s home studio hard drives, this is far more than just a digital cupboard clearance exercise, which should certainly be recognised as one of his finest curatorial creations to date.-Adrian-
