Standing Still

Description

Standing Still is an album by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist and producer Jeff Johnson, independently released on Ark Records in August 2007. The album was producer, recorded, and mixed by Jeff Johnson at The Ark in Camano Island, Washington. “Here is a soundtrack for standing still featuring modern Celtic/Classically-infused music full of rich and subtle chants, instrumentals and improvisations woven together to create a backdrop for solitude and contemplation.”

Featuring Jeff Johnson on piano, keyboards, percussion and vocal, Janet Chvatal on vocal, Brian Dunning on flute, whistles and accordion, Jozef Lupták on cello, Gwen Franz on viola, Tim Ellis on guitars, and Phil Baker on bass.

Johnson writes on the cover about moments when he has stood still in wonder or contemplation, such as the five minutes he spent in the doorway of a French church as a swallow kept flying over his head, out to the courtyard and back in again in a figure-of-eight pattern.

This disc is written for such stopping and reflecting. As Johnson and his friends regularly use their music in their own small group devotions, they know what is helpful for meditation and worship. So this album provides enough space to slow down and reflect, but it also offers enough content to guide meditation.

Johnson’s experience shows in the strong liturgical structure of the disc. Starting with an Alleluia, it moves on to a Kyrie Eleison, pauses on God’s presence and standing still, moves to the Eucharist, and ends with the Lord’s Prayer.

Musically, this collection includes some classic Johnson, right from the eleven-minute first track. It begins with the resonating sound of a single hand bell and gains a rumbling synth undertone, before taking up a Taizé-like chant. An unhurried piano motif leads to the kind of synth loop that you might find on ‘Rubycon’-era Tangerine dream. After a flute improvisation, the track returns to its early chant.

I have doubts about how well the instrumental «Abide With Me» section works within the title track; there are reservations about why he does not hand more vocals over to Janet Chvadal; and it would have been nice to have had a closing instrumental after the Lord’s Prayer, which finishes quite abruptly. But these are small niggles that should not detract from enjoying another fine disc. [Derek Walker, The Phantom Tollbooth, 2007]

Faithfully flying high the flag of Celtic-infused worship and contemplative music, Jeff Johnson is more than a standard bearer; he’s a spirit mover. Johnson’s keyboard-based compositions and spot-on collaborative arrangements lend him an immediately identifiable sound – and one that never is short on mystery or joy or inspiration.

Here Johnson once again captures profundity in melody and lyrics, conveying the desperate need (whether our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls are nudging us or not) to stand still in the midst of life’s myriad distractions.

While there are only six tracks on the album, it spans more than 42 minutes – and offers much substance through the speakers. Employing the powers of his longtime collaborator, Brian Dunning (flute, whistles, accordion), as well as other musicians on cello, viola, and electric guitar and bass, Johnson sticks to theological cornerstones of Christianity for song themes. As such, each track has two titles’a creative moniker as well as a spiritually infused descriptor (e.g., «Standing Still / Abide With Me», «Glory / Remember», «Alleluia / Behold the Lamb of God»).

. . .Standing Still will transport you (and others) to places of quiet knowing. [Dave Urbanski, Youthworker Journal]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/standing-still/258654167)

CD tracklist:

01. Alleluia – Behold The Lamb – 11:28
02. Lauds – Creator Of The Starry Height – 6:46
03. Kyrie – I Call To You – 4:14
04. Standing Still – Abide With Me – 8:16
05. Gloria – Remember – 4:45
06. Crux – Our Father – 6:31

Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://jeffjohnsonarkmusic.bandcamp.com/album/standing-still

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Introduction –
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
– Psalm 139:5 – 6

Shortly after completing the music for this recording, I had the good fortune to return to Rocamadour, France – one of Europe’s greatest medieval pilgrimage sites. During one of the days of my visit, I arrived early in the morning and stood alone in the small square into which each of the small chapels and churches face. I was thinking about what it means to ‘stand still.’

As I entered the open doorway of one of the churches, a swallow flew out just missing the top of my head. I turned and watched her circle around the square and had to duck as she darted back through the door into the church where she looped around again. Her figure-eight flight back and forth through the door and over my head between the sanctuary and the square continued for a good five minutes until finally she took rest on a perch back inside the building. I had stood still the entire time, only moving my head as I followed the swallow’s flight. It was a moment of true wonder for me.

A week before I stood on Holy Island, Lindisfarne and watched the afternoon tide rise to cover the pilgrim path and road which connects the island to the mainland. I was struck with the poignancy of being so isolated from the mainland until the tide subsided again. Something beyond my control had limited my options and I was given the opportunity to ‘stand still’ and consider. For some reason I thought of a moment years before when a diagnosis of cancer for a dear friend had completely changed the options of our lives.

In these modern times, it is difficult to stand still with so many gadgets and distractions to keep us moving. Yet, all of this moving about ultimately poses a great peril to our hearts, minds and souls. Somehow, we must find the grace to stand still. For eventually we will have to cope with the rising tides that life and death will bring us.

Like the rich metaphors found in David’s Psalm 139, these songs are offered to help one pause and consider that which is worth considering. We were created to be more than what we’ve become. And whether it’s the unexpected medical diagnosis or the flight of a swallow which stops us in our tracks, we will stand still. And in that moment, we will have the chance to know God and worship Him and truly know ourselves.

– Jeff Johnson