Jo Johnson - Let Go Your Fear LP - 09.08.2024
I am so proud to share that my album Let Go Your Fear will come out on on 9th August 2024. The three tracks are extracts from a long, free improvisation on an early summer’s day and shared with you unedited and unadorned. I'm extremely grateful to @castlesinspace for their support and for giving my music this exceptional treatment.
I need to give the artwork and pressing of my new album, Let Go Your Fear, its own post. Elfyn Lewis
@elfynlewisis the award-winning Welsh abstract artist behind the incredible cover painting, Heulwen, meaning sunshine or sun-blessed. After Colin from Castles in Space introduced us, Elfyn and I found common ground in conversations about the project and our work. Everyone involved agreed the painting suited the music perfectly, but that deepened for me as we chatted and I’ve shared some of our exchanges in a new Substack called Silver Threads. You can see and buy more of Elfyn’s work on his website. Links to both in bio.
The album design is by my husband and long-term collaborator Emile Facey, aka @plant43. Emile is known as a musician but he’s also a talented artist and graphic designer. You can see some of his designs and art on his brand new @plant43art account. Emile was determined to keep the design for Let Go Your Fear subtle and minimal to foreground Elfyn’s painting, rather than compete with it. And we wanted to give the album a classic LP format, with the name and logo in a bar above the abstract art, like a jazz album from the late fifties. A little homage to the long tradition of musical improvisation.
We were very lucky to work with dunk! pressing (@dunkpressing), thanks to Colin, and they were up for collaboration so we could be creative with the vinyl, too. Federico from dunk! spent a lot of time with Emile and I on a call going through the various options for vinyl effects and colours and offering ideas. The aim was to extend the painting onto the record itself with splashes of paint-like vibrant colour and its worked just as we hoped it would. You can see the full package and vinyl on my instagram profile and on Silver Threads.
Let Go Your Fear is out on Friday 9th August 2024 on Castles in Space’s Bandcamp page and the vinyl is available to pre-order at Juno, Norman Records, Soundohm and Rough Trade now.
Jo: Elfyn, I was wondering whether you wanted to share with me anything about how you created the painting? Was there a lot of preparation and thought first or do you paint in a more intuitive way? I'm wondering if there's any connection with the music – it was a free improvisation rather than something I composed and refined over lots of sessions. I think both approaches are equally great, by the way, and I enjoy and use both. I'm not an improv snob and I don't think that working intuitively/improvising devalues the work either. I’m just curious.
Elfyn: OK, I'll give it a shot... Obviously, there is working on the hoof and trying and failing. Wonderful mistakes of sorts but there are rules you use to get to that point. For me it’s about letting the work sing to me. It’s always a journey with an idea of going somewhere but getting lost on the way is never the worst thing…
The mistakes kind of bridge you to a way forward. Playing or, like you say, improvising within is a way of going forward. The paint kind of leads the way.
Jo: For me it’s the same when I improvise, the machines and sounds lead the way. Actually, the symmetrical ending of the album, which sounds intentional, almost inevitable now, was a looper error and a complete surprise to me in the moment. On another day I might have ended the recording and started again but because I was playing, following rather than leading, I was able to listen and really hear and accept the ‘mistake’. Luckily, I realised it was better than what I’d intended to do and kept going. It’s now my favourite section of the album, it’s what makes it complete and whole – and meaningful for me.
Elfyn: I kind of go looking for mistakes as they move the work along and develop the art. I called a show of mine a few years back ‘Camgymeriad Hardd’ which translates as beautiful mistakes. I think that’s quite apt really.
Jo: Definitely. Let Go Your Fear is my second full-length album in 10 years... Talk about a difficult second album! Perfectionism has absolutely strangled me and led me to so many distractions and excuses. With your art and my music together, this release feels like a celebration of the power of play – the benefits of following your intuition (with words, colour, texture, sounds), accepting what occurs, welcoming mistakes and building on them. Which, I’ve realised means accepting myself and my imperfections a little more. Letting people see a less controlled version of myself. Not always possible, of course, and it doesn’t always work, but it’s worth the risk because when it does it’s a magical experience.
Let Go Your Fear is out on 9th August 2024 on Castles in Space's Bandcamp page and the vinyl is available to pre-order at Juno, Norman Records, Soundohm and Rough Trade now.