[Pre Order] Josh Johnson - Animative - Exospheric Blue LP *

Release Date: October 23, 2026

The indie retail exclusive pressing, on exospheric blue vinyl.

Animative embodies a culmination of the harmonically rich, loops-inflected sound that first germinated on Johnson's 2020 full band release Freedom Exercise and on his immersive 2024 solo album Unusual Object. The ten-track album — co-produced by Johnson and Paul Bryan, featuring contributions from Meshell Ndegeocello, Macie Stewart, Marquis Hill and Ben Lumsdaine among others — combines compositional brilliance and technological ambition into a blend of skeletal soul-jazz, post-bop, electronic minimalism and dreamy ambience.

Throughout the album Johnson puts sophisticated technologies to work, often using the saxophone to control a sampler or a drum machine, triggering changes in a loop or an effect, but always in service of a feeling. He cites fellow Chicagoan saxophonist Eddie Harris and the piano eccentric Mal Waldron as influences on his approach to breaking form and emphasising the corporeal elements of performance.

Features

• Exospheric blue vinyl
• 1 LP
• Indie retail exclusive
• Label: Nonesuch

Track Listing

1. Idiofone
2. Reece
3. Jazz Chord Possession
4. Aughts Hymnal
5. Mill
6. It Can Be Everywhere
7. Strays
8. High Step
9. Close
10. Upstairs 2021

The side splits for this pressing have not yet been published.