In addition to recording, Johnson has lead a Christian contemplative worship service called Selah featuring music, scripture, poetry and silent prayer.
His first album, The Face of the Deep (1980), managed to conjure aural landscapes in the ears of his listeners with his synthesizer infused progressive rock renditions of fantasy works.
Songs are inspired by writings such as Charles Williams' All Hallows' Eve, and by the paintings of Gauguin and Renoir's The Moulin de la Galette.
Johnson completes his treatment of these aural landscapes with on-location recordings of atmospheric sounds such as rain storms and creaking gates - incorporating them into the music in an artful way.
On his second album, he collaborated with Sandy Simpson to record Through the Door (1982), which took up the theme of spiritual quest inspired by the novels of George MacDonald (The Golden Key).
Lyrics include passages from the Biblical Psalms as well as prayers by early Irish saints Columba and Patrick as well as Teresa of Ávila and Francis of Assisi.
"[9] Johnson and Dunning also recorded the instrumental “The Bard and the Warrior” (2001) inspired by two Lawhead stories based on the Irish folklore heroes, Taliesin and Cú Chulainn.
Yeats (1865 - 1939) “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” After Dunning's death in 2022, Johnson released two retrospective albums featuring the duo’s thirty-five year collaboration.
John Diliberto, the host and producer of the syndicated Echoes, has chosen each of the duo’s releases as an “Echoes CD of the Month” [10]and writes that “the real place that Johnson and Keaggy create is of the imagination and wonder.” [11] He describes their “Spinning on a Cosmic Dime” as “a masterwork of guitar and keyboard orchestrations which will spin you into reverie and dreams.”[12] John Van Deusen Many of Jeff Johnson’s instrumental recordings have been influenced by “ambient music.” When Jeff met alternative musician John Van Deusen, the two discovered that they shared a mutual love for the genre and soon set out to record “Eremo” (2024).
The recording was made into a film of the same name released by Thomas Nelson Publishers featuring live performances of Johnson, Dunning, Fitzpatrick and Portland, Oregon guitarist, Tim Ellis.
Cascadian artist Jeff Johnson cites Celtic spirituality as one of the greatest influences on his music, because of its deep connection to the natural world.
In 1991, he played with Derri Daugherty (The Choir); jazz players David Friesen and Dave Hagelganz; and rock drummer Mark Schulman.
Johnson's recordings have been licensed and featured on numerous commercials, compilations, spoken word and movie soundtracks including the Martin Scorsese film, "Gangs of New York," Ruth Bell Graham's "A Quiet Knowing," the Hearts of Space "Celtic Twilight" and Windham Hill "Winter Solstice" and "Celtic Christmas" series, Eckhart Tolle's "Music to Quiet the Mind," Angela Elwell Hunt's "The Tale of Three Trees," Keith Patman's "Centerpoint: Poetry & Music for Christmas and Scott Cairn's "Parable".
Jeff Johnson produced music since his early teens, and started Ark Records in "a small studio in our house with a friend back in 1977"[18] (Tigard, Oregon).