Leon Todd Johnson - wa kei sei jaku (Whited Sepulchre)

The Slow Music Movement
Aug 28
2 min read

*** This blog post first appeared in TSMM's August 24th Newsletter, where you can get all the tips (and more) first ***

This is the cover for Leon Todd Johnson's, "wa kei sei jaku", showing small Japanese tea bowl sitting on a sunlit wooden surface, casting shadows. The background is grayscale with rectangular cutouts on the right.

Indianapolis’ Leon Todd Johnson has been producing classical infused chill-out and ambient music under his Airport People moniker for the last few years; he’s always worth checking. With a fondness for Ryuichi Sakamoto, a recent trip to Japan under is belt and having started the practise of zen meditation he set about recording this new EP. Serendipitously he also came across an interview preserved in the Library of Congress with Minie Somi Kubose about the traditional Japanese tea ceremony; the jigsaw was complete.

Leon Todd Johnson in glasses and orange beanie smiling in music room, with a piano and shelf in the background. Tattoos on arms, warm lighting.

I was happy to learn the four principles of the tea ceremony are Wa (和): Harmony or unity, Kei (敬): Respect or reverence, Sei (清): Purity or cleanliness and Jaku (寂): Tranquility or silence, and doesn’t the world just need all of those, right now and in abundance? I’m immediately ditching my British builder’s tea, pulling out the whisk and getting back on the matcha.

These days I tend to shy away from vocal samples in modern music, I guess my nineties chill-out experience and fondness for the Solid Steel radio show shouts memory lane too loud when I hear them, much to the distress of my generally forward looking tendencies, but now I know about the ceremony principles, and because the voice rides the suitably chilled music so well I’m giving Johnson a pass just this once. Some fine stand up bass work guides the introductory “Wa” as Johnson’s piano contemplates the meaning of all things in its own time. Bird song introduces, then accompanies, “Kei” on it’s transcendent, languid beat paved path, and if you don’t feel a whole lot better after listening to it then you might consider a check up from the neck up.

Barely raising a decibel for the best part of two minutes, “Sei’s”introduction gives you ample time to savour every note, word and chirp before it slowly blooms into another thoughtful, blissful piano meditation. To close this EP, and before you sink into the instrumentals, “jaku” eases through the speakers like it’s Sunday morning and you’re not trying to wake anyone up, well apart from a minor flourish that accompanies an extended snippet of Kubose’s wise words. It’s a lovely listen from this thoughtful multi-instrumentalist.