Music

Concentric Ringing (2022)

'Concentric Ringing' is a new 26-minute music project by Brooklyn-based artist Breaking composed of field recording patched together with electronic instrumentation. Considering sound as relic, both new and recycled sounds are carefully assembled into a sonic sculpture in motion. Sounds in the compositions will come-and-go, scenes fade in-and-out, or abruptly cut (as if with scissors) - all in effect of creating collage of both time and space. Some moments are glued still, others duplicated & looped. Some skip & struggle to play and have been weathered by time; dirt lays beneath them. Neon litter scattered in the substrate, picked out and assembled into sonic sculpture. Ideas are displayed in motion, in forwards and in reverse. Produced in a way that shows the process of production and allows the draft work to live on in the final product. Loops of different lengths are displayed alongside each other, flowing from synchronicity to syncopation, their seams and loop points dissolve. The leaves change as the plastic bag in the tree remains the same, a series of rings(circles:spirals).

Written, recorded & produced by Austin Johnson

photos by Emily Dorsey

Breaking (2020)

“New York-based musician and filmmaker Austin Johnson thrives in textural realms. Since his mesmeric 2017 short film “babyteeth” and its accompanying soundtrack, completed during his final year at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, his work under the production name Breaking has wandered through thick and wistful terrain. His inner world is one where sounds and visuals both possess the same poetic potential; flexible, fluid environments where the natural and the synthetic coalesce, sculpted into patterns of perpetual flow or phantasmagorical immersions depending on the contexts surrounding them.

After evolving through a quiet storm of genre-fluid singles and shortform releases, Breaking has broken through bedroom-pop boundaries with a soul-stirring self-titled debut LP on Orchid Tapes three years in the making; an autodidactic coming-of-age story that constantly crossfades to form a sonic montage of memory. At once Johnson’s most collaborative and inward-leaning work to date, Breaking is a pensive journey through self-reflection and toward self-assurance; a sound setting for wounds to heal in. Drifting through regions of radio static, distorted guitar, glitchy programming, colossal drones and heartfelt pop songs, Johnson builds cinematic soundscapes of detail and depth that seek out solace and eventually find fulfillment in the face of fear.”

Text by Nick Zanca

Featured in The Fader

Performed, produced and written by Austin Johnson
Mixed by Warren Hildebrand
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irissari
Cover art photo by Tonje Thilesen
Styled by Nicole Mclaughlin

Shell (2019)

A brief look into the chaos of finding ones self, realized through piano, guitar, synthesizer and voice. 

Called “One of the Best Ambient EPs of 2019” by Vice Music 

Performed, produced and written by Austin Johnson
Mixed & Mastered by Aaron Shapiro
“Rave” features vocals from Warren Hildebrand

I Thought It Was a Bug but It Was Smaller (2021)

An exploration of the natural areas of New York, the noises, dins, drones, distant melodies and memories, acoustics and electronics evoke the feeling of realizing how small we are to the grandiosity of nature. A freeing revelation. 

Performed, produced and written by Austin Johnson

“Slug Watcher” features acoustic guitar by Nick Zanca

“Thermals” features clarinet by Emily Dorsey

Field Guide (2021)

A romantic look out the window and an instrumental attempt to capture the beauty of falling in love with nature alongside the person you love. 

Performed, produced and written by Austin Johnson