“PI” is a piano album by Norwegian producer and musician John Derek Bishop. He has recorded himself playing piano and cut these recordings into 16 short pieces of music. He has focused on creating a minimalistic, fragile and imperfect album. Many layers of piano create a rich sound and texture, and the microphones have been placed close to the piano for an intimate feeling.
Nortusa Recordings 2024
“Flow” is a meditative ambient album by John Derek Bishop inspired by Norwegian nature. It is his most minimalistic album so far and the eleven songs take the listener on a journey through different moods. Bishop recorded the album in his studio at Tou in Stavanger, Norway. The album was mixed by Steven Bishop and mastered by Taylor Deupree.
Jazzland Recordings 2023
Six female vocalists are live-sampled by Bishop in this live improvised studio album. The vocalists are Dorothea Økland, Karoline Karlsen, Isabelle Kongshaug, Anna Klungre, Andrea Opdal and Emilie Eie.
Jazzland Recordings 2023
Duo album with guitarist Svein Rikard Mathisen
Grappa / Curling Legs 2022
Duo album with saxophonist Inge Weatherhead Breistein. Recorded live in five churches on the West Coast of Norway. Jazzland Recordings 2022
John Derek Bishop (aka. Tortusa) solo album featuring Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset, Erland Dahlen, Inge W. Breistein, Svein Rikard Mathisen, and Simen Kiil Halvorsen.
Jazzland Recordings, 2021
Dark Star Safari is a musical entity comprised of Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer and John Derek Bishop. Their second full-length offering Walk Through Lightly is the first to feature all five musicians together in the studio from the outset, making for a more organic refinement upon their already established methodology: gradually sculpting distinct songs out of collective improvisations, or using the raw material from initial recordings as the basis for more carefully articulated compositions.
ArjunaMusic Records, 2021
Past Present & Tortusa: "Eternal Return". A studio album recorded live with no overdubs in Propeller Studio, Oslo. The sounds of trumpeter Simen Kiil Halvorsen and bassist Alexander Hoholm were live-sampled and shifted to new sounds and textures by John Derek Bishop.
Jazzland Recordings, 2019
Tortusa / Breistein: "Mind Vessel". An album recorded in the rooms of the old beer brewery Tou in Stavanger. It contains mostly recordings of saxophonist Inge Weatherhead Breistein, that have been mixed, chopped and mangled by Tortusa.
Jazzland Recordings, 2018