Take It From Here

John Derek Bishop (alias Tortusa) is a Norwegian-American electronic musician and producer from Stavanger, Norway. He has released five albums on Jazzland Recordings and was nominated for the Spellemann Prize (Norwegian Grammy) for his solo album «I Know This Place». The albums har received good critics in the magazines Mojo, Prog Magazine, og Future Music. Bishop has collaborated with artist Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Jan Bang, Erland Dahlen, and more.

A cornerstone in Bishop´s production is the texture and timbre of sound. He searches for sounds that are out of the ordinary and places the listener in different emotional states. For compositional processes, he utilises both hardware and software equipment including retro tape recorders, modular synthesizers, samplers and a diverse array of other tools. His music is influenced by ambient, electronica and experimental jazz. 

On stage Bishop live-samples the musicians he plays with and uses this as his sound pallet to improvise with. Theses recordings are used to create chords, textures, melodies and rhythm. This way of improvising has been pioneered by Jan Bang. Bishop utilises modern sampling equipment to push the boundaries of this new instrument in improvised music. 

For several years, Bishop has been composing and performing for modern dance and performance art shows in Norway, England and France. He has made music for several short films including «Limerence», «Hyperspace» and «Across the dreams». Aside from making music he works with photography and has made the cover art for his albums.

Human and machine, ideologies on magnetic tape, smoke and ash from the pyre.

tHiS & ThAt WoRlD.. mOmEnTs AnD mInI mUsIc CoMpIlAtIoNs WiThIn A hUgE pAsT, pReSeNcE, & fUtUrE... lOve...!i!i (frommyheart2urs)
                        ~dEePkNoWlEdGeGuRu~ ScUlPtUrEr Of SoUnD~               

Take It From Here

John Derek Bishop (aka Tortusa)