His debut release Upon a Painted Ocean was labelled as "an instrumental album of positively momentous strength” (REVOLT) and featured guest vocals from Mary Spender and Max Bemis of Say Anything. It was touted at the time as "a modern Tubular Bells" (OVERPLAY).

 

Throw The Sun Into The Sea was his second album and delved further into an exploration of instrumental music and the ways in which this could be communicated towards an audience. In order to illustrate this he made 10 short films to accompany the record, releasing the album as a complete audio/visual experience.

 

Rob’s first two albums were produced and mixed by Geoff Swan (credited work includes; Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Paul McCartney) and mastered by Jon Astley (Led Zeppelin, The Who, ABBA, George Harrison).

 

After nearly dying from a life-threatening illness in 2017, 2018 saw the release of Other Futures featuring the song Empires which reached the semi-final in the instrumental category of the ‘Song of the Year’ contest judged by Dave Grohl, Steven Tyler, Gwen Stefani and Alicia Keys.

 

Johnson has been featured as an ‘artist to watch’ in Acoustic Magazine and has performed regularly at the London Acoustic Guitar Night, as well as playing at the London Acoustic Guitar Show at the Kensington Olympia. He has worked with American EDM duo The Beat Kidz, contributing guitar parts to their remix of Madness by MUSE - which received regular airplay on KROQ in the United States. 

 

2019 saw the release of a further three albums from Rob Johnson Music – the entirely acoustic SOS,  the electronic I AM A MACHINE and mind, body and soul - vol one an ambient collection – his exploration of instrumental music has only just begun.

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Photo by Pete Hare