Christian Johnson doesn’t just make electronic music. The 23-year-old producer also builds his own electronic instruments and is part of a resurgence in synthesized music.
The St. Albert resident, who goes by the pseudonym Wertyo, has 20 computers stacked on a rack in his basement and recently built a customized synthesizer.
By manipulating the synthesizer, the wireless systems engineering tech created an album that, at the writing of this article, has received more than 1.15 million streams since December.
“In the first month, I was getting 100,000 streams. Now I’m up to 400,000 streams each month,” Johnson said.
His album Tartarus is a 25-track inspired by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.
The three-part, book-length poem details Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise guided by Virgil and Beatrice, the poet’s great unattainable love.
“It’s a huge masterpiece. I consider it the greatest piece in Western literature and I would like to have people look back at it and see it in a different way,” said Johnson.
The concept album’s title is fittingly borrowed from Greek mythology. Tartarus is both a deity and a punishment pit in the underworld filled with sinners that threatened the gods of Olympus.
Fascinated by computers from an early age, Johnson enjoys the freedom to experiment technology offers.
After building his own customized electronic board piece-by-piece, the Paul Kane graduate used compositions he’d written over the last 10 years to create a foundation with a piano sound.
“The piano really spoke to me. I like how the piano by itself can impart so many different ranges and emotions.”
However, the focus was just as much on creating a sound wave and modulating it through filters, special effects and electrical impulses as it was on playing a series of notes to create a melody.
Tartarus has a spacey vibe. Not only is it melodic, but it creates the atmosphere of Dante’s journey. The indelible mix has an otherworldly soundscape that delivers a melancholy, haunting vibe. It’s an escapist sound – a bit calming, a bit meditative – that takes the listener to another dimension.
“It’s easier to understand if you listen to the music while reading the poem.”
Johnson grew up listening to classical and jazz until he hit the teen years and joined A Land Apart, a hard rock progressive metal band where he played guitar.
In this latest intersection of technology and art, the music producer has stretched his creative muscle and created a new language and a new way of communicating.
Adventurous listeners can find Tartarus on Spotify and Apple Music.
