Chuck Johnson is a California-based composer, producer, and musician. He approaches his work with an ear towards finding faults and instabilities that might reveal latent beauty, with a focus on pedal steel guitar, experimental electronics, alternate tuning systems, and composing for film and television.
Between 2011 and 2015 Johnson released a triptych of solo guitar LP’s – A Struggle Not A Thought, Crows in the Basilica, and Blood Moon Boulder – that have become touchstones of 21st Century acoustic guitar.
Balsams, his first album to platform pedal steel guitar, was described by Pitchfork as “singular,” and “a mournful hymn built out of layers of sliding strings, cascading with a zenlike stateliness…”
The follow-up to Johnson’s acclaimed Balsams LP, The Cinder Grove delves further into the compositional possibilities of the pedal steel guitar in the context of chamber ensemble arrangements for strings, organ, and piano.
Johnson is also an established film composer whose credits include scores for the HBO film Private Violence and the popular PBS shows Somewhere South and A Chef’s Life.
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