James Johnston And Steve Gullick: The idea of making music again immediately resurfaced.

Musician James Johnston and photographer Steve Gullick announce new album Everybody Sunset to be released November 18 November via God Unknown Records. The new album brimming with very nice cinematics post-rock. The album’s near-10-minute title track, which closes the album, that really brings together their avant-garde influences. 

Lineup:

James Johnston: violin, voice, organ, piano, guitar, banjo, autoharp, harmonica.

Steve Gullick: voice, piano, electric guitar, organ, synthesizer.

Having first met in 1991, music photographer Steve Gullick  and James Johnston, founder of Gallon Drunk, began blurring the boundaries between audio and visual in 2004 when they formed their own band, ‘…bender’. They’ve maintained the habit ever since, with Gullick subsequently founding Tenebrous Liar and Johnston pursuing a career, alongside his work with PJ Harvey and a tenure in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, as an acclaimed visual artist and painter.

After working together on an art show in late 2019, the idea of making music again immediately resurfaced. Without any firm strategy, Johnston and Gullick began recording, unprompted, drawing upon a shared love of noise, folk, and classical. This became the album We Travel Time,  a compelling and mysterious record that bravely embraced beautiful piano, voice, violin, and guitar to create a drifting haze, forging an imagined soundtrack which offers echoes of Big Star, Nico, Lee Hazlewood and Palace Brothers alongside the haunting influence of contemporary minimal classical.

Due for release this coming November 18th via God Unknown Records, Johnston and Gullick have returned to their craft to create a stunning new selection of songs and moods, brought together for the album Everybody’s Sunset’ recorded at their homes throughout 2021 and 2022, the ten songs on this new album take the fragile intimacy and agenda-free approach of its predecessor and go out even further into the fringes of tone and feeling. Utilising a vast selection of instruments between them (violin, organ, guitar, banjo, autoharp, harmonica, piano, synthesizers….), Everybody’s Sunset’ ebbs and flows, bringing different instruments and signals to the fore as the album progresses. ‘Everybody’s Sunset’ is available November 18th via God Unknown Records. All songs written, arranged and recorded by James Johnston and Steve Gullick

The creative pair first met in 1991 and formed the band ….Bender in 2004, but it wasn’t until late 2019 that they decided to begin work on more experimental music. Everybody’s Sunset is the second album released under their own names and follows on from 2021’s We Travel Time. Everybody’s Sunset sees the duo use violin, organ, guitar, banjo, autoharp, harmonica, piano, synthesizers and more to maximum effect across 10 tracks of experimental post-rock.

«Even though we record fast, to keep a live feel, we really spent time on this album reassembling and disassembling a lot of the tracks. The fractured, wistful song has a kind of damaged psychedelic yearning we both love on Big Star’s 3rd, or at least that’s what we were going for, which goes into a totally spacey and almost Wagnerian synth and string freak-out, or a Popol Vuh Herzog soundtrack.  We were definitely both listening to side two of Low and Heroes at the time too and wanted to give the music a chance to stretch out, go somewhere unexpected».

Tracklisting

1 The Moon & The Stars

2 Shimmer

3 A Fear Of Everything

4 Save Our Souls

5 Ice Moon

6 The Town That Couldn’t Sleep

7 Medieval Death Song

8 A Greater Silence

9 Who I Who

10 Everybody’s Sunset