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Jeff Johnson & Phil Keaggy — Spinning on a Cosmic Dime
(Bandcamp Arkmusic AKD-1587, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-10-04

Spinning on a Cosmic Dime Cover art

Multi-instrumentalists Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy each have dozens of releases, both as solo performers and in collaboration with others, and Spinning on a Cosmic Dime is their fifth together over a period of around fifteen years, a follow-up to 2021’s Ravenna. What is on offer here across the album’s eight tracks is something of a composed contemporary instrumental style, melodically rich and somewhat relaxed, with Keaggy handling all guitars and bass plus percussion, while Johnson’s piano and synth (plus percussion) round out the duo’s sound. The mixture of sounds at play inlcudes both acoustic and electric, over a rich bed of synthetics punctuated by piano and light percussion, with Keaggy’s electric solos being the counterpoint to the piano on many of the tunes; both contribute wordless vocals on some of the pieces, but it’s not a major factor. There are elements of folk music at play, as well as jazz and rock in the approach, but overall their sound can’t be compartmentalized that easily — it easily drifts in and out of a number of different musical idioms with ease, always noteworthy for its powerfully abundant melodic richness. Keaggy’s acoustic work is the highlight of many of the songs, which tend to stretch out in the six to eight minute range, each easily moving through a number of changes thus allowing both players to stretch out into ideas that seem to be continually evolving. The one-sheet for the release says New Age (among many other things), though the compositions and arrangements throughout are far more substantive than that term would connote, although it probably does share some of those aspects — the eight pieces are calming, powerful and certainly full of emotion, and dare I say beautiful at times. I am occasionally reminded of a couple of guys who released some albums back in the 80s, Lanz and Speer, with Natural States and Desert Visions, a couple of albums that had a mix of many similar elements to Johnson and Keaggy’s work here.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Phil Keaggy, Jeff Johnson (2)

More info
http://jeffjohnsonarkmusic.bandcamp.com/album/spinning-on-a-cosmic-dime

 

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