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Any Way You Turn

by Jonathan Ammons

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in a glossy sleeve with artwork by plein-air painter Julyan Davis.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Any Way You Turn via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    12
    releases

    Get all 12 Jonathan Ammons releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hiraeth, Far From the Hearth, Like You, Any Way You Turn, American Splendor, Anything More, Golden Hour, First Sight, and 4 more. , and , .

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1.
Unfolding 03:03
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2.
Wishful Thinking 07:03
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3.
Burnt Edges 05:47
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4.
Even the Smallest Step 05:31
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5.
Ebbing Winds 10:18
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6.
Counting Minutes 05:19
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7.
An Intercession 02:59
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8.
The Hard Part 02:37
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9.
Circling Hawks 07:56
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10.
Dead Leaves 04:45
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about

A collection of instrumental music written and composed for radio and news reports during the Covid-19 lockdowns and subsequent recession.

"When the Covid-19 pandemic forced a world wide lockdown of nearly every city, town and village, it took its toll on just about everyone. For me, I lost all 7 streams of income and their subsequent work. But with nothing to do, no money to spend, and no way to really socialize, I turned to the only thing I knew how to do in that situation — my nearly decade long experience as a reporter.

I grabbed a field recorder, a mask, headphones, and a shotgun mic that I duct taped to a poll so that I could remain the CDC suggested six feet away from anyone I was talking to. Every day I got in my car and drove from one end of my city of Asheville to the other, pulling over to poke the mic out of the car window and talk to local business owners, front line workers, and anyone that looked like they needed to say something.

I was there for the Black Lives Matter protests, caught the local business owners boarding up their businesses before the marches. I was there for the first day of total lockdown, when my car seemed to be the only one on the street. I taped in grocery stores, hardware stores, anywhere I could. And then I would rush home and start cutting tape to make a show about what I’d just seen and release it through our local radio station and my podcast stream -- 3 episodes every week. I wasn’t being paid a dime for it, but it was a way to pass the time.

Before that I’d been reporting on food pantries and hunger in a region — Western North Carolina — that was reported to be the 9th hungriest in America, where one in four people go to bed hungry. For years I’d been scoring for my own radio reports on those subjects, and all of the sudden, seemingly overnight, the stakes became much, much higher. And so, naturally, did the music.

I pulled down my old tape machines and started building tape loops. I used them as preamps to run instruments and microphones through before recording. I built ill fitting loops and played them until they morphed into some kind of twisted rhythm. I tweaked beautiful sounds until they became mangled, then tweaked them until they became beautiful again. I stopped worrying so much about harmony, melody, and the tangibility of the sounds and started thinking more about the emotion.

For so long I’d so loved the way that ambient and drone music distances the listener from emotion; how it flows, stoic and subtle, to provide you with the most zen of experiences. And for the longest time, that’s what I’d tried to achieve. But this was something different. Suddenly I was using those same techniques to try and capture the vibrations I sensed all around me — those feelings of absolute desperation. It felt like any way you’d turn your feet were crunching on tinder, ready to spark at the faintest of friction.

All in all, I composed around 60 pieces of music during that time. It ran a wide range of styles and emotions, but Any Way You Turn is a selection of the pieces that best captured the zeitgeist of those most desperate days.

Endless thanks to Julyan Davis for, yet again, volunteering one of his impeccable paintings to serve as the artwork for this record. I could not ask for a more apropos image for a record built around and in isolation, nor could I ask for a more generous artist to make my work look so much better than it is. Also thanks to my room mate Malcolm for his boundless patience putting up with the endless noise he'd hear droning on from my studio during the production of this [and all of my] records."

credits

released March 4, 2022

All songs written, arranged, and performed by Jonathan Ammons
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Jonathan Ammons at Orchard View in Asheville, North Carolina.
Cover Painting by Julyan Davis.
©2022 Electric Ghost Music, All Rights Reserved.

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Jonathan Ammons Asheville, North Carolina

Jonathan Ammons is a journalist, writer, radio DJ, producer, and musician from Asheville, North Carolina. His music runs the gamut between electronic, indie rock, ambient, and Americana.

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