Tom Johnson (b. 1939) is a key figure in the contemporary music scene whose voice as a composer is instantly recognisable.

A major champion of minimalism in the 1970s as a writer, he remains one of its most important adherents as a composer, although the word ‘minimalist’ does not cover everything that his music does.

Johnson is as radical as Eliane Radigue or Phill Niblock, but he is also interested in sounds that can be enjoyed in the moment, and in this sense, he is a true heir of Feldman, who was one of his teachers.

Counting to Seven (2014) is a set of short pieces lasting about 80 minutes, of which eighteen pieces are presented here. Although obviously vocal because they are text-based, some of the pieces include percussion. They can be performed by almost any group of at least seven people and are not written for trained singers or actors.

Originally the works on this disc were known as Counting Duets, but some years later, after a performance by Vincent Bouchot from the ensemble Dedalus, Johnson “reworked everything for seven voices. I changed the title to Counting to Seven, added about 30 languages, well-known, little known, living and dead, and put together an 80-minute version, which we began performing in 2014.”