"Out now: Marek Johnson’s “At Home Again, Singing” Vinyl LP"
You can now order Marek Johnson’s “At Home Again, Singing” as a limited edition 12″ vinyl in black or turquoise.
Marek Johnson, aka David Helm, is one of those pop music explorers who opens up to other microcosms and contexts. Coming from jazz and inspired bz the late Talk Talk, Helm creates magical mystery music where time is suspended, as his virtuoso singer-songwriter pop does not submit to trends and exudes timeless elegance.
The world that Helm deconstructs in the pieces of the album is at the same time carried by the songs, because the songs are about his own life, that is, about his history, including his family, his everyday life and his relation to others. A cathartic approach with many self-critical undertones. The aforementioned time travel effect also results from the preoccupation with parents and the clash between family and history. Fear. Love. There are fragments that Helm connects with the fine thread of his voice, some shards that he puts together with compositional heart; dreamlike images that are saved from oblivion by bittersweet melodies and choruses that cut into the flesh. The radical intimacy of the album is the result of a kind of detachment. Helm not only wrote all the songs and almost all the lyrics (for one song they were contributed by his partner, musician Shannon Barnett), he also played all the instruments this time, with only producer Jan Philipp at his side. Helm is closer to himself and yet ventures more outside of himself, giving Marek Johnson a firmer character than on “Stay Low.” And when there are passages that immediately remind one of the Beatles? It’s all the more beautiful.
