We’re all aware that most people function best during a certain part of the day or night. No wonder then that there is quite a bit of music around that to them just might sound best at the time that truly suits them.
Now, quite a few artists/musicians attempt to guide their music for exactly that purpose, but such ‘guidance’ often ends up resulting in a sonic wallpaper that is full of too much of a specific flavour. You really have to understand what you are doing and have the exact feel to actually make such music, well, suited for any time, any place, and as many occasions as possible.
Enter Indianapolis-based Leon Todd Johnson, musician and lecturer in data science, who has been for some years been making music under the moniker of Airport People. Under that guise, Johnson has focused on something that could be dubbed mood music that moved in the direction of a combination of neo-classical and ECM-style jazz (some would say, ECM in all its aspects).
Now, John steps out under his birth given name with wa kei sei jaku, a music that seems to be inspired by latter works of late master Ryuichi Sakamoto, and suited for the Japanese tea ceremony. Sure, it just might sound a bit too specific, for some kitschy even, but Johnson is able to escape all possible traps by not trying to suit a specific taste, in music or tea (or both), but presenting a musical vision of how he connects the dots between his music and what inspired him to create it.
What we get is music that is not only suited for a specific time of day, or a tea ceremony for that matter, but something you can play at any time, along with anything you can drink.
