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John Derek Bishop
Member Since: 2019 | Location: Bergen | Page Views: 130About Me
John Derek Bishop (alias Tortusa) is a Norwegian-American electronic musician and producer
John Derek Bishop (alias Tortusa) is a Norwegian-American electronic musician, producer and sound artist from Stavanger, Norway. He has released seven albums on Jazzland Recordings and was nominated for the Spellemann Prize (Norwegian Grammy) for his solo album «I Know This Place». His albums have received good critics in Mojo Magazine, Prog Magazine, and Future Music Magazine. Bishop has collaborated with artist Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Nils Petter Molvær, Jan Bang, Erland Dahlen, and more. A cornerstone in Bishop´s production is the texture and timbre of sound. He searches for sounds that are out of the ordinary and places the listener in different emotional states. For compositional processes, he utilizes both hardware and software equipment including retro tape recorders, modular synthesizers, samplers and a diverse array of other tools. His music is influenced by ambient, electronica and experimental jazz. On stage Bishop live-samples the musicians he plays with and uses these recordings as his sound pallet to improvise with. Theses recordings are used to create chords, textures, melodies and rhythm. After each concert he erases the sounds he has recorded so that the sound material is new every time he plays. Bishop utilizes modern sampling equipment to push the boundaries of this new instrument in improvised music. He has toured a lot in Germany, England, Poland, France and Norway. For several years, Bishop has been composing and performing for modern dance and performance art shows in Norway, England and France. He has made music for several short films including «Limerence», «Hyperspace» and «Across the dreams». Aside from making music he works with photography and has made the cover art for his albums. Album reviews of his 2021 soloalbum «Bre»: ”sonic tapestries blending field recordings with acoustic and electric instruments, often warped into strange new shapes” ★★★★ MOJO MAGAZINE ”a seductive ambient heat haze of rarefied beauty.” PROG MAGAZINE ”a beautifully and slowly evolving album that takes us on a transcendental journey that feels simultaneously unfamiliar, benign and inviting…. Tortusa’s finest and most distinctive work to date” 8/10, FUTURE MUSIC MAGAZINE Website: www.bishop.no
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This page was last updated on 2023-11-16.
