‘The Jitters’ is out September 25th on Brainfeeder
Inspired in part by his frankly jaw-dropping live performance videos that he regularly posts on social media, the Austrian composer/producer and Dorian Concept (Oliver T. Johnson) has collated a suite of alt/out/one-takes showcasing the breadth and depth of his chops, from the loose, lounge-ready stylings of ‘Eigendynamik (Elevator Version)’ – the original graced Brainfeeder’s 10th anniversary compilation in 2018 – to the frenetic funk of ‘Booth Thrust (Live)’ and the stark, sombre beauty of solo piano outing ‘One for the Wandering Mind’.
The idea for this project came to me when I was sifting through outtakes from my last album “The Nature of Imitation.” I always get this weird feeling of dissociation after finishing a record.
Tracks I didn’t want to put on the album or sessions I thought were underdeveloped now appeared to me to be the most interesting ones. It feels like these little moments can – when looking back at them with some distance – essentially capture the core of an album.
With this record I wanted to highlight the fact that there is often more than just one version of songs that I put out. Next to alternate studio versions, I also love to develop live renditions that also have their own structure, arrangement and feel. Instead of presenting a collection of tracks that didn’t make my last album, I wanted to showcase the moments that created them in the first place: to somehow capture the creative energy and improvisational spark that helps me ultimately to “get there”.
The prodigiously gifted keyboardist has released a string of celebrated EPs and albums for Kindred Spirits imprint Nod Navigators and Affine and enjoyed underground success with the release of an album “Joined Ends” on Ninja Tune. Oliver contributed production to Thundercat’s “The Golden Age of Apocalypse”, played keys on Flying Lotus’ seminal album “Cosmogramma” and toured in the live bands of both FlyLo and The Cinematic Orchestra. Landing on Brainfeeder in 2018 he released “The Nature of Imitation”: an album of dizzying swells, cacophonous breakdowns and formidable rhythms with Pitchfork gushing “Dorian Concept creates something that ’70s and ’80s electro-funk auteurs like Kraftwerk, George Clinton, and Roger Troutman hinted at: computer music that uncannily imitates the funk, rather than just faking it.” A limited 12” of unreleased micro-KORG bangers – “Toothbrush / Booth Thrust” – followed in 2019, referencing the energy of Brainfeeder’s earliest international label nights in 2009 (Off-Sonar in Barcelona and the infamous Hearn Street Car Park session in London) that Dorian Concept played at.
Most recently, Oliver collaborated with one of the world’s leading ensembles for contemporary music Klangforum Wien, composing and performing a piece called “Hyperopia” at TRANSART Festival 2020 in Austria. Check the trailer: https://youtu.be/t2H5SdBuHFw
