Biography
Whitney Johnson, a Chicago musician, produces atmospheric and eerie works under the Matchess moniker. She employs pre-recorded cassette tapes, sustained organ tones, vocals treated with delay effects, and sporadic segments of intense noise drawn from her viola to construct a textural, ethereal sonic palette that emphasizes both rhythmic drive and ambient qualities. Her earliest releases appeared in constrained cassette editions, with the standout Somnaphoria arriving in 2015. Sacracorpa followed in 2018 and featured greater sonic clarity while retaining its haunting character. The 2022 album Sonescent took the form of an extended drone composition shaped by a meditation retreat. Two linked projects issued at once in 2024 were Hav, credited to Johnson herself, and Stena, presented as Matchess.
Johnson had already performed with bands including Verma and E+ before launching her solo endeavor in 2012. Those initial efforts surfaced on highly restricted cassettes, among them the 2013 Seraphastra, which began as a run of fifty tapes on Digitalis and received a wider edition the following year on Trouble in Mind. The same label brought out Somnaphoria in 2015. Monofonus Press in Austin issued her third album, The Rafter, in 2016. She returned to Trouble in Mind for 2018’s Sacracorpa, recorded inside an earth ship in New Mexico together with studios in Chicago and New York, where Johnson also worked inside LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House.
Longform Editions released the drone piece Fundamental 256 Hz in 2019, while Mexican Summer issued the single “For Lise” in 2020. That year she premiered Huizkol, which Trouble in Mind later included in its Explorer Series in November. Hausu Mountain put out Vines, the debut LP by Damiana, Johnson’s duo with Natalie Chami (aka TALsounds), in 2021. Sonescent, Matchess’ first Drag City release, appeared in 2022 and comprised two side-long drone pieces. Drawing on research into the Cult of Hermaphroditus in Cyprus and Greece, Johnson issued the more minimal and droning Hav under her own name alongside the still-submerged yet comparatively melodic Stena cassette as Matchess in 2024.
Johnson had already performed with bands including Verma and E+ before launching her solo endeavor in 2012. Those initial efforts surfaced on highly restricted cassettes, among them the 2013 Seraphastra, which began as a run of fifty tapes on Digitalis and received a wider edition the following year on Trouble in Mind. The same label brought out Somnaphoria in 2015. Monofonus Press in Austin issued her third album, The Rafter, in 2016. She returned to Trouble in Mind for 2018’s Sacracorpa, recorded inside an earth ship in New Mexico together with studios in Chicago and New York, where Johnson also worked inside LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House.
Longform Editions released the drone piece Fundamental 256 Hz in 2019, while Mexican Summer issued the single “For Lise” in 2020. That year she premiered Huizkol, which Trouble in Mind later included in its Explorer Series in November. Hausu Mountain put out Vines, the debut LP by Damiana, Johnson’s duo with Natalie Chami (aka TALsounds), in 2021. Sonescent, Matchess’ first Drag City release, appeared in 2022 and comprised two side-long drone pieces. Drawing on research into the Cult of Hermaphroditus in Cyprus and Greece, Johnson issued the more minimal and droning Hav under her own name alongside the still-submerged yet comparatively melodic Stena cassette as Matchess in 2024.
Albums
Singles
