Johanna Warren
Gemini II
Wax Nine
/
2020
Includes Instant Download
CD
13.99
WIX05CD
Ltd. edition
Incl. VAT plus shipping / Orders from outside the EU are exempt from VAT
Tracklist
1Hopelessness Has Done Nothing for Me 3:16
2Say You Do 2:31
3Here to Tell 3:34
4Cause Or Effect 2:42
5inreverse 4:37
6Boundaries 4:23
7Cleansed by Fire 4:56
8Mine to Take 2:43
9Was It Heaven 4:51
10Maya (Bonus Track)1:48
11Hopelessness Has Done Nothing for Me (Instrumental)3:16
12Say You Do (Instrumental)2:31
13Here To Tell (Instrumental)3:34
14Cause or Effect (Instrumental)2:42
15inreverse (Instrumental)4:37
16Boundaries (Instrumental)4:23
17Cleansed by Fire (Instrumental)4:56
18Mine to Take (Instrumental)2:43
19Was It Heaven (Instrumental)4:51

When asked what motivates her to make music, Johanna Warren responds immediately: “Music is vibration; it's a direct way to affect matter. A song is a way to journey into places of discord and then resolve back into harmony.” The nomadic songwriter/multi-instrumentalist constructs complex, gossamer folk compositions that draw from the richness of the human experience and her own unique flavor of mysticism. Her 2015 sophomore album, nūmūn, found its way on to several notable year end lists and led Rolling Stone Magazine to name her a "Songwriter You Need to Know."

In 2016, Warren released Gemini I, the first of a pair of conceptually connected albums written and recorded in the throes of a rocky romantic relationship with another artist. “All the songs on both records are about a complicated three-year relationship with a Gemini man,” she says. “It was very much a 'twin flame' situation. We were working with bright light and intense shadow.” As a way to process this emotional chaos, Warren began to write in earnest as a form of self-therapy. Eschewing the more abstract lyricism of her earlier work, she began to create a suite of confessional songs about the blessing and the curse of romantic love.

The albums that resulted, Gemini I and Gemini II, are moody, bewitching records packed with layers of occult symbolism and personal mythology. Every song on Gemini I has a corresponding “twin” on II, linked by melodic motifs, lyrical content or production choices. Rather than the DIY recording setups that Warren and engineer/producer Bella Blasko had used previously, the Geminis were tracked at Dreamland studios in upstate New York. There, equipped with a sudden wealth of instruments and more sophisticated technology, Warren who arranges and plays nearly everything on her records, felt free to explore. This spirit of experimentation is evident on the records. The songs retain the hushed warmth of previous releases Fates and nūmūn, while expanding Warren’s sonic landscape in all directions. In celebration of her upcoming album Chaotic Good, out May 1st, Warren has partnered with Carpark and Wax Nine Records to reissue deluxe editions of Gemini I and II, including bonus tracks “The Garden” and “Maya” along with instrumental versions of the studio album.