Universal biography

Artist Biographies on
SlowBurn Records

Universal
(1987-1989)

Musicians:
Eric Johnson (vocals, guitar,
bass, drums, keyboards)
Young Arnold (bass)

Albums:
Blind Child And The Garden (1988)
Drone (1988)
Sandstone (1989)
Structure (1989)
Icy Lucifer (1989)
Oceans (1989)

The first of the three four-track collectives, Universal made big jumps in the evolution of perfomance and writing. Universal's primary player Eric Johnson, takes the music from being a largely garage-rock sound influenced by The Who and Pink Floyd into a mostly instrumental, piano driven direction. During this period, six projects were completed under the Universal name. The masters from the first three projects all were lost --only the original mixes survive. The first project loosely explores the concepts of birth and death, Blind Child And The Garden is where it all began for SlowBurn Records. The following project, Drone gets experimental and wierd. To make the project a little more listenable, outtakes from Universal's live counter-part Isis Rising are also included. Sandstone is where song writing begins to take the spot light and recording techniques get a little better. The fourth project Structure was recorded as an experiment for Johnson to relearn the piano. Little time was spent on recording techniques for the project but it did plant the seeds for the soundtrack-like piano material that would be recorded in the following years. Then a huge break-through for both Johnson and SlowBurn, a new four track recorder. The new gear allowed Universal to record drums without overloading. Icy Lucifer is the first three project fully realized. The Univeral period comes to a close with Oceans a largely instrumental collection featuring Young Arnold on bass guitar.

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