Browse by Artist: JOHANNSSON, JOHANN

Artist:	JOHANNSSON, JOHANN
Title:	Englabörn
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	LP
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	TO 052LP

Englabörn is the highly-acclaimed first solo album from consummate Icelandic musician, composer and producer Jóhann Jóhannsson, originally released on CD by Touch in 2002, now issued in a gatefold vinyl edition. Derived from music he wrote for an Icelandic play of the same name (written by Hávar Sigurjónsson), the music recorded for this album was revised and restructured to make it stand as a work on its own and not simply function as a collection of cues. Written for string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion, these organic elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. "Odi Et Amo" casts Catullus' famous poem as a computerized counter-tenor vocal singing a Latin text. Set for the final scene in the play, the text fit the melody perfectly and was also thematically perfect for the play. Says Jóhannsson, "What I really like about it is the harsh contrast of the computer voice and the strings, the alchemy of total opposites, the sewing machine and umbrella on a dissecting table." What is achieved here is spine-tingling -- a sense of cold detachment set against powerful melancholy and gorgeous, emotional instrumentation. Jóhannsson continues: "The play is extremely violent and disturbing and basically when faced with the script, I decided to work against it as much as possible and just try to write the most beautiful music I could." Even outside the context of theater, Englabörn is a stunning achievement, taking compositional leitmotifs and sparse, non-intrusive, well-chosen electronics to paint dramatic, ice-rimmed scenes and portraits that could just as easily be invoked from the theater of the imagination.

Artist:	JOHANNSSON, JOHANN
Title:	Virthulegu Forsetar
Label:	TOUCH (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	TO 064LP

This is the second album for Touch from Iceland's Jóhann Jóhannsson, originally released in 2004 -- now available on vinyl. Virthulegu Forsetar contains one hour-long piece for 11 brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. The piece had its live debut in Hallgrimskirkja, a large church in Reykjavik and the city's towering edifice, and was named "the most memorable musical event of 2003" in Iceland's leading newspaper. The piece has Englabörn's quiet, elegiac beauty, but abandons the brevity of the first album's exquisite miniatures in favor of an extended form that reveals a long, slow process. A simple theme played by the brass section is repeated throughout the entire piece using different voicings and instrumentation. As the piece goes on, the tempo slows down, until it is extremely slow. Around the middle of the piece, the tempo starts to speed up again, until it reaches the original tempo. Space and the sense of place were very important in the performance and recording of the piece. Players were positioned both in front and at the back of the church and two organs were used, again, one in front and one at the back. This created a sense of immersion and a sound that is powerful without ever being "loud." Johann writes: " I had a number of things going through my mind during the writing of the piece, some of them being an obsession with entropy, Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49, postal horns, cybernetics, small birds, heat, space, energy, 'singularities,' Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence, Moebius strips. I'm absolutely not interested in imposing any one 'meaning' on the piece, but all these things were flying around somewhere in my head. A casual listener might categorize the piece as ambient or meditative, but I think this is really wrong -- for me, it's much more about chaos and tension rather than harmony." Virthulegu Forsetar is performed by The Caput Ensemble, conducted by Guðni Franzson, with Skúli Sverrisson on bass and electronics, Matthias M.D. Hemstock on bells, glockenspiel and electronics, Hörður Bragason and Guðmundur Sigurðsson on organs and Jóhann Jóhannsson on piano and electronics.

Artist:	JOHANNSSON, JOHANN
Title:	And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees
Label:	TYPE (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TYPE 064CD

It probably wouldn't surprise most, but the Type label was originally formed with soundtracks in mind. The moody music that usually accompanied their favorite independent films was a starting point for the label, so it seems perfect that nearly seven years on, they are going back to their roots, if you like, with this album from acclaimed Icelandic musician/composer/producer Jóhann Jóhannsson. Jóhannsson emerged on the influential Touch label with the genre-defining Englabörn (TO 052LP) album in 2002, and since then, he has gone from strength to strength, becoming one of the most important figures in post-classical music. With two towering records for the 4AD label, it was only a matter of time before he was asked to record a film soundtrack, and And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees is the result. An accompaniment to Marc Craste's animated film Varmints, this is a collection of achingly beautiful orchestral work balanced on a bed of Jóhannsson's patented electronics. Surprisingly, however, the film itself is not intrinsic to the enjoyment of the music; Jóhannsson's score stands alone perfectly as a haunting collection of tracks. As with most soundtracks, the album is made up of a selection of repeating themes which appear and disappear throughout the record; Jóhannsson manages to approach this with such subtlety you can't always even tell that a familiar theme is drifting in and out of each track. The clouds of ambience and growls of synthesizer that underpin the lilt of the orchestra are crucial to the record and lend a warmth similar to what made Englabörn so very special. These pieces are memorable and deeply moving, and within one listen you could almost visualize the film itself -- or at least a home made version. Soundtrack or not, Jóhannsson has created yet another peerless collection of electronic/post-classical vignettes you won't be forgetting any time soon.

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