Description
Shadow Play is the fifth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Jeff Johnson, independently released on his own label Ark Records in 1983. The album was produced, arranged, and engineered by Jeff Johnson and Sandy Simpson. Written and conceived by Jeff Johnson, except “Penumbrae” written by Sandy Simpson.
“Art is tied to reality with a thousand ties.” – Hans Rookmaaker
Locked in a cave, a group of prisoners see only reflected silhouettes not things themselves. That image from Plato opens Shadow Play, a celebrated exploration of inner life. Marrying classical sensibilities with the energy of rock, Jeff Johnson sketches ten musical vignettes of searchers and dreamers whose quests and questions mirror our own.
Mrs. Gibb, from Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, dreams of seeing Paris. Vincent Van Gogh in the Borinage, the coal mines of France, learns of his ambition to paint. Camus, the French philosopher, struggles for the meaning of existence. The “soul of all mankind” lead Ishmael, Moby Dick’s famed seeker, in search of “the ungraspable phantom of life.” The final vision of “Penumbrae” unveils the Celestial City, where “shadows dance around the New Jerusalem.”
Lyrically brief but musically expansive, Shadow Play is a major work of power and beauty, and its appearance on compact disc a cause célèbre. This digitally mastered recording faithfully renders in original brilliance and clarity the thousand facets of life reflected in Shadow Play. [CD liner notes by Gord Wilson]
Jeff Johnson roams the realm of the human quest for supreme Truth, exploring the dreams and shadows that follow each of us before and after conversion. Thought and emotion are required to grasp the meanings of the songs, for each, as related to the others, is like an onion peeled to reveal yet another layer…similar to a reading of Charles Williams. [CCM, September 1983]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/shadow-play/64957149)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Plato’s Cave” – 4:25
A2. “Soliloquy” – 4:07
A3. “Let Me Go” – 2:14
A4. “Borinage” – 2:28
A5. “Paris Dreamers” – 7:10
A6. “The Play” – 4:15
Side Two
B1. “The Phantoms Know (So Long, Andromeda)” – 4:54
B2. “Dancer In The Night” – 6:58
B3. “My Blue Camus” – 7:16
B4. “Penumbrae” – 4:06
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Ark Records. Later digitally mastered and re-issued on CD, distributed by Sparrow/Star Song Distribution. Available at Bandcamp: https://jeffjohnsonarkmusic.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-play
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.