Marek Johnson

https://marekjohnson.bandcamp.com

Marek JohnsonTime is suspended twice, in that Marek Johnson's virtuoso singer-songwriter pop does not submit to trends, exudes timeless elegance and raises existential questions for eternity that anyone could actually ask themselves right now, should he or she be able to muster the strength. And also in that the songs lift up the past in the sense that they preserve it.At Home Again, Singing, released 28 October 20221. Owls2. Hommage3. Paralyzed4. Leaving Cracks5. Eddy6. Nothing7. Birds8. Sleep9. Taking Stock10. KnowingAt Home Again, SingingOut of nowhere David Helm's voice resounds, as if it were a ghost from a lamp, finding its way into the ear together with the guitar. The voice engraves the words "Take another pill to swallow my fears/ Vanishing in warm vanilla clouds" into history - that is, into the present of a world without reliability which is full of false certainties. An absurd life produces the most insane moments, the most passionate entanglements and the most painful realizations. So crazy, passionate and painful that sometimes only pills help - or just this music. Or both. The nocturnal, psychedelic song "Owls" conveys an atmosphere of time travel, during which the unconscious evaporates in Helm's voice, but the world around it continues to appear as an impregnable fortress; leading into the past and the future at the same time. With "Owls" and its vanilla clouds, David Helm creates a musical space in which time is suspended. That is the 'home' of which the title of the album references and about which his songs are sung. It is necessary to briefly digress in order to explain how Marek Johnson got into this space. It has something to do with Mark Hollis. Hollis landed synth-pop hits like "Such a Shame" with his band Talk Talk in the 1980s. But gradually Hollis and co turned to organic instrumentation, improvising more, deliberately letting go of fixed song structures at times, shaking up well-rehearsed automatisms in pop, when ultimately it's more common for unconventional acts to move in the opposite direction and become more accessible. Then they suddenly capture the zeitgeist, which Hollis in fact didn't care about at all after a certain point in his creative work. After that they burn out again because timeless beauty is rare in the fast-moving chart business.David Helm got to know the later Talk Talk and Hollis albums at some point and gave time and space to the process of getting to know them. Helm comes from a jazz background and is active in various formations. The first EP under the name Marek Johnson, "Stay Low,"  released a good two years ago, marked a step in a completely new direction for him. More pop than ever, and yet much freer than before. That only sounds like a contradiction if you deny pop music's emancipatory power instead of rediscovering it time and time again.David Helm is one of those pop music explorers who also feel like opening up to other microcosms and contexts, such as the environment of the Papercup Records label, which offers him new possibilities of expression. With "At home again, singing" he ventures even further forward artistically and back a bit in time. Paradox? The multi-instrumentalist, who sang in a boys' choir in his youth and openly describes the phase of his voice breaking as a traumatic experience, had already rediscovered his own voice and his role as a singer on "Stay Low";translating thoughts and feelings into his own lyrics for the first time. Helm's voice revealed in the essence of its development so much potential that one was already looking forward to the next step. Like a time machine, the EP allowed us to listen into the future of today and the present form of Marek Johnson. All that was missing was the space where Helm could retreat to summon the spirit."At home again, singing" describes this space - and at the same time is the space. The world that David Helm deconstructs in the pieces of the album is at the same time carried by the songs, because the songs are about his own life, that is, about his history, including his family, his everyday life and his relation to others. A cathartic approach with many self-critical undertones. The aforementioned time travel effect also results from the preoccupation with parents and the clash between family and history. Fear. Love. There are fragments that Helm connects with the fine thread of his voice, some shards that he puts together with compositional heart; dreamlike images that are saved from oblivion by bittersweet melodies and choruses that cut into the flesh.  The radical intimacy of the album is the result of a kind of detachment. Helm not only wrote all the songs and almost all the lyrics (for one song they were contributed by his partner, musician Shannon Barnett), he also played all the instruments this time, with only producer Jan Philipp at his side. Helm is closer to himself and yet ventures more outside of himself, giving Marek Johnson a firmer character than on "Stay Low". And when there are passages that immediately remind one of the Beatles? It's all the more beautiful.The haunting "Leaving Cracks" hints at a certain longing for disappearance with the lines "What's the use of leaving cracks behind/ When we're not even sure about our own faith?", and gets to the heart of the album's central paradox. Time is suspended twice, in that Marek Johnson's virtuoso singer-songwriter pop does not submit to trends, exudes timeless elegance and raises existential questions for eternity that anyone could actually ask themselves right now, should he or she be able to muster the strength. And also in that the songs lift up the past in the sense that they preserve it. The song "Eddy" is dedicated to David Helm's grandfather, who took his own life. A moment becomes a whole story. You feel it when you enter a room you call home after an extended time away. The outer time seems to stand still as soon as one closes the door behind oneself; the inner time is stirred up more and more by having stayed away for so long. In that instance, if one heard one's own voice, so tender and fragile, from another world and yet caught in this world, as if it were a ghost of days gone by singing, "What do you see in nothing?", then it would either be time to swallow the next pill - or to listen to this album again. - Wolfgang Froemberg

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