John Tejada “Year of the Living Dead” out on KOMPAKT @ Green Galactic PR

Revered Label Kompakt Presents
New Album by Electronic Maestro John Tejada
Year Of The Living Dead
A Blissful Extended Moment of Balance
Between the New and the Familiar
February 26, 2021

LOS ANGELES, CA – February 26, 2021 – With his new album, Year Of The Living Dead, out today, February 26, 2021 on Kompakt, Vienna-born and LA-based producer John Tejada finds a blissful extended moment of balance between the new and the familiar. Anyone who’s followed his career to date, which has included four previous albums for Kompakt, outings for storied labels like Plug Research, Playhouse and Cocoon, and numerous remixes and collaborations–most recently, his Wajatta duo with comedian and musician Reggie Watts–will immediately sense the warmth and eloquence that Tejada brings to his gilded, pliant techno and electro hybrids. But there’s more here, too; an explorer’s glimmer in the producer’s eye, as he gets to grips with new ways of working and being, while offering a reflective opening for the listener, something echoed in artwork by graphic designer and ‘contemplative artist’ David Grey. For more information, please visit kompakt.fm/releases/year_of_the_living_dead

John Tejada, photo by The1point8

Year of the Living Dead Tracklist

(available digitally/CD/double vinyl)

1/A1. The Haunting of Earth

2/A2. Sheltered

3/B1. Eidolon

4/B2. Echoes Of Life

5/C1. Spectral Progressions

6/C2. Abbot of Burton

7/D1. Panacea

8/D2. Anchorites

“The album was started using tools I was unfamiliar with, which became an interesting exploratory process,” Tejada explains. “Staying away from the obvious and having to re-learn simple things was a fun challenge.” You can hear these new creative pulsions pushing the eight tracks on Year Of The Living Dead ever-forward; the album has a unique cast, and though there are trace elements of the genres Tejada has indulged previously, he’s never quite put them together this way before. There’s the dubwise glitter sprinkled across the moody opener “The Haunting Of Earth,” the kind caresses found amongst the deftly woven textures of “Sheltered,” and the churchy melancholy, all hymnal and golden, of “Echoes Of Life.”

Year Of The Living Dead also speaks obliquely to its moment, though Tejada works this implicitly, allowing the strange circumstances of 2020 to cast their inevitable shadow without being obvious or didactic. “The production process began right before lockdown and continued through what felt like a very serious time for all of us,” he recalls. “Not being able to see or touch our loved ones made me feel we are all like ghosts. We can observe from a distance but cannot really be there. We are isolated and alone.” And yet, Year Of The Living Dead’s tenderness offers an out for that anxiety and loneliness, its intimate immensities gifting the album a redemptive and compassionate core. Compact and glistening, Year Of The Living Dead sculpts unassuming beauty.

JOHN TEJADA

John Tejada has been at the vanguard of West Coast techno since 1994, releasing a succession of acclaimed albums, singles and EPs for prestigious labels around the world as well as for his own long-running label, Palette Recordings (est. 1996). Among his best-known tracks are the moody, mesmeric “Farther and Fainter” (from his 2011 Kompakt full-length Parabolas) and the 2005 underground banger, “Sweat (On the Walls).”

He has traveled to more than 30 countries DJing and performing live at clubs, festivals and esteemed venues such as Decibel Festival (Seattle, L.A.), Dekmantel Festival (Amsterdam), Mutek (Montreal and Mexico), Sonar Festival (Spain and Tokyo), Berghain (Berlin), Fabric (London), Rex Club (Paris), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and twice at Walt Disney Concert Hall, both in Los Angeles. Also in high demand as a remixer, he has remixed well over 100 songs for the likes of The Postal Service, Bomb the Bass, Télépopmusic, Kevin Saunderson, Way Out West, The Field, Darren Emerson, Gui Boratto, Simian Mobile Disco, and many more.

Album & Artist

kompakt.fm/releases/year_of_the_living_dead
kompakt.fm/artists/john_tejada

John Tejada

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QUOTES

“During our time with Tejada, it became abundantly clear that the man is an absolute repository for advanced technical production processes and track development.” ~ XLR8R

“He’s one of the few producer’s in the house and techno scene that seems to feel truly at home working with the album format.” ~ DJ Mag

“LA’s John Tejada is something of an enigma” ~ Ransom Note

Wenn man in der mittlerweile dekadenlangen Techno- und House-Geschichte den Begriff Konstanz personifizieren wollte, dann gibt es eigentlich nur einen Namen: John Tejada.” ~ DAS FILTER

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For more information, photos, to schedule an interview or request audio files, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

Posted on May 3rd, 2021 lynn-hasty No comments

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