Johan G. Winther Shares His Favorite Vinyl Picks + New Video Debut

Last month, we shared “Blacken the World” from Johan G. Winther‘s upcoming album The Rupturing Sowle, which blends rich instrumental folk textures with ambient sounds, foggy synthesizers, and haunting melodies into a moody record well-suited for a spring evening’s listening.

Winther binds these forces together into an atmospheric storm that finds strength in variety: acoustic guitar and bare-bones drums form the core of much of the songs, but they never wear out their welcome, often being replaced by cello melodies or overshadowed with gusts of synthesizers. There’s always a new, hard-to-pin-down sound surfacing as these tracks progress, reinforcing the core motifs through goosebump-raising subtlety.

It’s the kind of music that benefits from visualization and enrichment: there’s a lot going on in the shadows of this record, unheard or unnoticed, that can shine when cast into the light. To that end, Johan G. Winther has shared some insight into his inner musical machinations via five picks from his glorious-looking vinyl stash. Check out his selections below (and prepare to do some Discogs diving), then witness the unsettling music video for “As Above, So Below,” which puts the ‘idyllic gloom,’ as we called it, of The Rupturing Sowle into focus.

If you’re familiar with Chariot of Black Moth, then it’s not too surprising that the music video for “As Above, So Below” nails the atmosphere of the music: moody and weird is kind of their specialty. As with the album at large, the song is beautiful but also feels dark and wrong in some innate way; shaped into a music video, that darkness and that wrongness form a cohesive journey through a world that seems like a shadowed reflection of reality. Watch it now:

Winther comments:

In the video for “As Above, So Below” the full story arc of “The Rupturing Sowle” has been beautifully envisioned by Chariot Of Black Moth.
I sent Jakub the narrative that the album is based upon before he started to work on the album, along with some footage I had shot, and was completely blown away by the amazing piece of work he delivered to me. The core concepts of the album has been included and portrayed in both subtle and more direct ways, and I am absolutely in awe of how well his vision has interpreted and depicted what is for me a most personal work.

The Rupturing Sowle releases March 26th, 2021 via Pelagic Records.