[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
- Idiofone
- Reece
- Jazz Chord Possession
- Aughts Hymnal
- Mill
- It Can Be Everywhere
- Strays
- High Step
- Close
- Upstairs 2021
The side splits for this pressing have not yet been published.