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john coker
#cokersound
stoic
LP out now via bentley records
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ABOUT JOHN
After surviving a freak incident with a stage light while performing with an orchestra, virtuoso musician John Coker makes music all on his own as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Renowned both for his work as a revolutionary sound designer/composer for theatre and as a solo artist, his latest is STOIC, newly released from Bentley Records in 2021.
John obsessively trained his way to becoming one of the top-tier classical musicians of his generation, completing postgraduate work at the esteemed Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He became the victim of a freak incident with a stage light while performing onstage with an orchestra. This launched a permanent continuous migraine condition, requiring dark glasses at all times. He was diagnosed with PTSD.
As a response, during a long recovery period, John delved even deeper into music, assumed full control of his artistic process, and channeled his efforts into better connecting with his audience as a musical chameleon. Since then, he's utilized his masterful capabilities to craft a sound influenced by many, yet all his own. He's also renowned as a highly innovative sound designer and composer for theatre.
And, through years of deep meditation and therapy, he no longer suffers from PTSD; his diagnosis was officially modified to past-tense.
He considers the incident with a stage light good karma, his metanoia, and is thankful for its beauty.
TRACK LISTING
1. Face the Night Feel Alright
2. Possibly Forever
3. Conduction
4. Candle Eyes
5. Can I See Your Face
6. Rose of Another Name
7. Eine kleine Not Mozart
8. Ashes to Ashes
9. We Will Someday Be the Ancients
On Stoic
Crafted during 2020 quarantine, taking the idea of contrast therapy, this highly innovative album alternates between heavy, complex electric improvisations and intimate, simple acoustic singer-songwriter tunes. John dares to question the all-too-often stale standard practices of pop music sound design.
"The end result is an inventive album unsaddled by genre limitations that manages to explore fresh sonic territory without wallowing in self-indulgence. While there’s plenty of experimentation going on, Coker’s musical chops and embrace of melody never get lost in a sonic mire.
While all that genre jumping could make for an awkward three-bean salad of an album, STOIC hangs together as a cohesive work. Like Jeffrey Lebowski’s rug that pulls the whole room together, Coker’s interest in manipulating sound manages to unite the tracks.
While there’s no shortage of solo artists creating experimental releases in their bedrooms that walk a similar line, STOIC stands out from the herd thanks to Coker’s musicianship, ambition and novel approach to contrasting hot and cold, light and dark."
- Sanford Nowlin, San Antonio Current
"The invention is superb here making for a hugely striking and atmospheric sound."
- Various Small Flames,varioussmallflames.co.uk
