Richard Leo Johnson's three previous releases found the acoustic guitarist in predominantly solo settings, occasionally augmented by percussionists and other guest musicians. 2004's Poetry of Appliance, his first release for the Cuneiform label, sets the Arkansas native in front of his first stable group, theremin player and violinist Ricardo Ochoa and electronics expert Andrew Ripley. The space age atmospherics of Ochoa and Ripley never overshadow
Johnson's playing; indeed, Ochoa's theremin meshes perfectly with
Johnson's guitars on the simply lovely "Her to Hymn," and Ripley's almost dub-like waves of sound are a perfect counterpoint to
Johnson's overdubbed guitars on the driving "Glide Path." Playing 6-, 12-, and 18-string guitars (the last a double-neck 6- and 12-string that
Johnson has tuned to a peculiar scale),
Johnson takes his various influences -- mostly
Leo Kottke and
John Fahey's playful disregard for acoustic convention and
John McLaughlin's wide-ranging, cross-genre expressiveness -- and distills them into a uniquely personal sound that's rooted in folk and the more experimental end of new age music but doesn't quite belong in either category. Difficult to categorize, then, but marvelous to hear. ~ Stewart Mason