Released on August 8, 2023
HWY-094.2
Digital
The album JOHAN'S CHILDHOOD CHAMBER NOSTALGIA ALBUM was recorded by members of the string quartet Ethel, who Johan Lenox first encountered during a residency they did at New England Conservatory prep school in Boston a student taking lessons there.
The second song released from the record "PARACHUTE DANCE." Says Johan Lenox of the track: "'PARACHUTE DANCE' is built around a swelling gesture that was inspired by an a-cappella group arrangement I heard while I was a participant on the NBC contest show The Sing Off. The swelling effects are recorded live (and not reversed even if they sound that way), a detail which probably gets lost on a recording as manipulated as this, but a nice bonus in a live performance. Once I began work on the piece, the swelling effects also reminded me of a memory from childhood of playing with a gigantic parachute in gym class with 50 other kids, and that inspired the title of this piece and the concept of the entire album."
The album is about hazy memories of childhood. Says Johan: "I am a very nostalgic person and I revisit those times often and it's interesting how fractured and blurry the vignettes I recall even most vividly are. I wanted an album that felt like how I remember a school day feeling in elementary school, when I'm not even sure my brain was fully developed yet."