Emma Johnston, Roy Montgomery

New album by New Zealand composer and guitarist Roy Montgomery in close collaboration with Emma Johnston. After Nietzsche is in a way the sister-album to last year’s Suffuse, where Montgomery composes songs for guest vocalists. Only this time it’s in close partnership with Emma Johnston. Montgomery's distinctive, interweaving guitar play is set as background for Emma Johnston’s angelic vocals and experimentations.
Swimming through the four tracks of the album, it’s surprising to notice how different they are. The opening track could have been plucked from one of Montgomery’s 80s projects, while the rest of the a-side takes us into more shadowy territory, Realm of the Senses with it’s slow strumming and echoing vocals evokes Grouper (who points to Montgomery as being an influence of her work) and the title track After Nietzsche with dramatic vocals and strings, cleverly builds up to a climax that never happens. The last song clocking in at 21:10 is a post-postmodern duet between the two musicians in a dark philosophical mood. Includes an insert and calligraphy by Liz Harris.

Roy Montgomery is a composer and guitarist from Christchurch, New Zealand. Montgomery's mostly instrumental solo works have elements of post-rock, lo-fi, folk and avant-garde experimentation. His signature sound might be described as atmospheric or cinematic, often featuring complex layers of chiming, echoing and/or droning guitar phrases. Montgomery has played in several New Zealand bands since 1980, most notably The Pin Group, Dadamah, Dissolve and Hash Jar Tempo.
Emma Johnston, a classically trained singer, has developed a practice that explores experimental voice in theatre. This led to her MA and then PhD theses, which explore her work in the context of experimental voice in avant-garde performance. Emma has also worked as a singer and actor with Silencio Ensemble, the Christchurch Symphony, and Corrupt Productions, and has premiered vocal works by composers Chris Reddington and Gao Ping.