Johnny Bell is a New Mexico-based musician who loves field trips. His recent record from September (which we reviewed here) is named Field Trips, after all. Bell is a multi-talented instrumental musician who explores the banjo as a progressive instrument and evolves it beyond its traditional roots.
Bell’s new progressive banjo composition “Departure Valley” is accompanied by a music video where he took another field trip – this time with director and filmmaker Luke Bern Carr. The Third Eye is proud to present the premiere of this video and song, which you can check out below:
Carr explains that the video was filmed in New Mexico. He and Johnny had to wait out the bulk of a storm before hiking to a specific spot to film. Carr wanted to bring several juxtapositions to life in this live music performance video.
First, Carr wanted to honor Johnny’s work’s raw nature by filming the piece in one take. Only two cuts are bookending the video.
“Johnny’s recent compositions are both minimal (in their instrumentation) and maximal (in how they fill time and space), so I wanted to create a composition that somehow felt intimate and expansive at once,” Carr said.
Carr and Johnny departed their filming location in the dark and had a memorable hike back. “It was a lovely field trip,” Carr writes.
The video for “Departure Valley” is simple but powerful in its austere approach. The filming location adds to the depth of Johnny’s traditional clawhammer banjo techniques as we watch him pick away with the beautiful vista of New Mexican mountains and city lights in the background.
Enjoy the video, and if you haven’t already, check out Johnny’s Field Trips LP from Aural Canyon. It’s an excellent dose of American Primitive music run through with acoustic drone, ambient field recordings, radio broadcasts, tape loops, and other found sounds that create mesmerizing sonic textures.
Check out The Third Eye’s interview with Johnny Bell here.
Johnny Bell: Official Website | Bandcamp | Instagram
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