Johnson, Mike - The Gardens Of Loss CD

SKU Rune 521
Who is Mike Johnson, where did he come from and how is it possible that he has made one of 2026’s most ambitious, adventurous, and relevant releases?

Co-founded in 1982 by Mike Johnson, Thinking Plague is a storied band, whose forty-five year history has seen it cleave consistently to the extreme limits of what is possible to do within rock music. Genre-defying and, above all, unique, Thinking Plague’s music can be described equally as post-rock and/or post-classical.

Mike is influenced by harmonically adventurous twentieth-century classical music, as can be heard in the ambiguous tonality of the music, and the rigour of his dense, complex compositions. Like many rock musicians he is self-taught, but very knowledgeable, and his fusion of rock and classical music is as seamless as it is compelling and for the first time ever amongst his 8 albums as leader of Plague, he has had the opportunity to use orchestral instrumentation as one of the pillars of this work!

Perhaps this is the reason why this is a Mike Johnson album and not a Thinking Plague album?

“As some will know, most Thinking Plague music and lyrics over the years were written by me, and the band has essentially been my project since the mid-nineties. But for this album, I was hoping to be free of the some of the expectations and assumptions that come with the name Thinking Plague. I wanted to try some different things, and take full credit or blame for the outcome. One of my main objectives was to make an album incorporating an orchestra, of sorts at least, which required me to employ a lot of new people, such as a string quintet, a new flutist, an oboist, bassoonist, trumpeter, trombonist, etc. And I wanted some different musicians in key roles - like Simon Steensland on bass and Morgan Ågren and Kimara Sajn on drums, and Jeremy Kurn on piano.

There's a lot more, and more varied, orchestral instrumentation - real players; not samples. Sometimes, thanks to the "magic" of overdubbing, it will sound like a large orchestra. Other times you can hear various winds, reeds, brass and/or string ensembles of different sizes. The aesthetic is generally more orchestral in the 2Oth century sense, while still incorporating some intensely "rock" elements. It's not ‘classical’ orchestration pasted onto rock band tracks, rather, it's integrated and is very organic, I think.

In my mind, it isn’t Thinking Plague. I know that some people will say it sounds like Thinking Plague, but what they should realize is that it sounds like me.” - Mike Johnson
  • LabelCuneiform
  • UPC045775052120
Your Price $15.00
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