Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson Share New Single 'Empty Quarter'

Ahead of the release of their elemental new album Rain Shadow on May 15th, Portland duo Golden Retriever and Oakland guitarist Chuck Johnson have shared the record's first single "Empty Quarter".

Listen below!

Evoking the beauty and solace of wide open spaces, "Empty Quarter" was one of the first pieces written for the project, setting the sonic framework for the album. As the track unfurls, the trio utilize steady, imperceptible motion akin to a desert's wind eroding stones into new configurations, hewing glistening harmonics from rich beds of pedal steel, bass clarinet and electronics.

Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson are artists unified by their ability to build entire ecosystems of sound. As Golden Retriever, bass clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff and synthesist Matt Carlson erase the boundaries between their respective instruments using carefully selected effects and masterful intuitions as improvisors. Chuck Johnson is a guitarist lauded for his expertise in crafting a diversity of atmospheres, be it through fingerstyle acoustic or droning pedal steel. The combined powers of the trio is intoxicating. On their debut album, Rain Shadow, Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson combine slowly shifting instrumental layers with clouds of melody and texture, punctuated by vivid emotional peaks. By compounding minimalist approaches into maximalist compositions, the trio evoke images of a vast open desert and a cloudless sky, the zen of a simple, clear horizon coupled with the power of the infinite.

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