SURFILMUSIC (Soundtrack & 4-Tracks)

Jack Johnson isn’t just a surfer who went on to become a famous singer; as we see in the 2026 documentary SURFILMUSIC, Johnson’s sporting and songwriting pursuits have been intertwined since day one, with music serving as a meditative comedown response to his wave-riding adventures in the Pacific. For the film’s soundtrack, Johnson cut a handful of tracks with the fraternal Ecuadorian-Swiss duo Hermanos Gutiérrez, who infuse his mellow folk-rock grooves with tasteful touches of psychedelic twang on the instantly familiar new tune “Hold on to the Light” and a revamped “Drink the Water”. But for this release, those recordings are supplemented with early 4-track cassette sketches of songs that would populate his early-2000s star-making releases Brushfire Fairytales and On and On, presenting us with an audio-documentary chronicle of Johnson’s origin story every bit as fascinating as the onscreen version.