Johan Gielen Returns to the Artist Album after Two Decades with ‘Etherflow’

“Always, I have believed that artist albums need a purpose” says Johan Gielen, “and that purpose can’t simply be feeding the industry machine or the bi-annual expectations of a fanbase”. Nonetheless, it’s been nigh on twenty years since ‘Revelations’ appeared, making Etherflow less of a ‘return’ to the Johan Gielen longplayer, and more a musical reckoning for it.

Fair to say then that expectations have been raised, and its taken the Belgium-born/Dutch-based legend three earth cycles of production to meet them. An album forged in grief, resilience, and a raw creative truth, Etherflow isn’t just a long-awaited ‘next chapter’. It’s part an epic celebration of life, and part an existential excavation of it – one that’s been written from the inside out and charged by the weight of lived experience.

What’s in a title then? Johan expands … “Etherflow represents the natural, continuous movement of universal energy — an invisible current that connects every being, thought, and element of existence in a harmonious manner.” Which is important, as that perspective on life is bound into every musical bar of the album – one that’s shaped by events all too real in Gielen’s life.

Specifically, it carries the weight of loss, most notably in the passing of his long-time friend and tour manager, Robert Sanders. Paradoxically, that became the most significant driving force in Johan’s return to the album form, which ultimately brought his second longform to life.

In that respect, the track “Beach Pearl (Robert’s Theme)” does stand as a major emotional centre within Etherflow an instrumental tribute formed in the quiet after heartbreak. However, Etherflow as a whole is no longform eulogy. Be it the sun-drenched optimism of “Piano del Sol”, “Love from Above”s divination; recent (speaks-for-itself) single title “Ecstatica” (with Daniel Wanrooy) or Pierre Pienaar co-op “Marula Sunset”, it radiates positivity at any number of junctures.

“Losing Robert broke me for a long while. For a decade we toured the world and saw it together, and his passing came out of nowhere. With hindsight, I see I went into the studio to try to process some of that pain. To try to ‘write it off my chest’ in some fashion. From there, the album became a broader meditation of life’s ups and downs the highs, the lows, but as well, the ‘in-betweens’ we’re often not grateful enough for. It’s about growing up in dance music and oddly the twenty years of perspective between ‘Revelations’ and ’Etherflow’ was an incredible benefit to writing it. Ultimately though, this one’s for Robert it’s how I expressed my grief, without words.” – Johan Gielen

What does run the length of Etherflow though is the spark of a chance writer’s camp meeting between Johan and Arkayne (Kevin van der Tholen) a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist who wasn’t even meant to be there that day. Over the last three years, Arkayne became an essential creative partner on the album. Their bond brought new textures and instrumentation to it from live guitars to sweeping piano lines.

“Kevin says I’m like a walking music encyclopaedia, but he’s the real musician. Piano, guitar, vocals he does it all, and you can hear so much of that threaded into the album.” – Johan Gielen

In its latter stages, Etherflow looks upwards again, albeit not to the heavens, but the skies. Says Johan, I did two tracks side by side with Joakim “Shakespeakers” Skeide. “A couple of years ago he booked me for a gig in Norway, where he also has a studio. We hadn’t planned on working together, but when he mentioned it, I said, ‘hey, let’s try something’ and’ ten minutes later we had a track started. Norway is one of my favourite places, and after fishing and hiking with Joakim, those experiences naturally flowed into the music. ‘Nordic Chant’ and ‘Satellites’ capture that Norway vibe the Northern Lights, the mountains, the skies and the raw beauty of the country it’s all bound up in them.” Etherflow is out now on all mayor streaming platforms.