Jóhann Jóhannsson "Fordlândia"
4AD CAD 2812
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Fordlândia reviews
Released: 11.08
11 Track CD / Digital Download
01 Fordlândia – mp3 sample
02 melodia (i)
03 The Rocket Builder (Io Pan!)
04 melodia (ii)
05 Fordlândia - Aerial View – mp3 sample
06 melodia (iii) – mp3 sample
07 Chimaerica
08 melodia (iv)
09 The Great God Pan is Dead
10 Melodia (Guidelines for a Space Propulsion Device based on Heim's Quantum Theory)
11 How We Left Fordlândia
Jóhann Jóhannsson's spellbinding new album draws these tantalising threads together, weaving a musical tapestry of hypnotic richness and surprising emotional depth.
After IBM 1401, A User's Manual, Fordlândia is the second instalment in a proposed trilogy based on technology and iconic American brand names. Whereas IBM 1401, A User's Manual was a personal response to technology and its inevitable obsolescence (inspired by his father's work with mainframe computers in 1960s Iceland), Fordlândia springs out of a far more diffuse set of influences. It brings together the soaring grandeur of its predecessor – some sections were recorded with the same orchestra in Prague – and the intimacy of Englabörn, moving between heady, melting cadences and crystalline motifs with gorgeous, dreamlike logic.
In short, Fordlândia is Jóhann Jóhannsson's most complete and beautiful piece of music to date; a fascinating, immersive and deeply rewarding web of ideas and melodies, which is sure to win him a legion of new listeners.
A track-by-track description of the album by Jóhann can be read in the Fordlândia section.
Jóhann Jóhannson "IBM 1401, A User's Manual"
4AD CAD 2609
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Released: 10.06
5 Track CD / Digital Download
01 Part 1 - IBM 1401 Processing Unit – mp3 sample
02 Part 2 - IBM 1403 Printer
03 Part 3 - IBM 1402 Card Read-Punch
04 Part 4 - IBM 729 II Magnetic Tape Unit
05 Part 5 - The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black – mp3 sample
Inspired by a recording of an IBM mainframe computer which Jóhann's father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, made on a reel-to-reel tape machine more than 30 years ago, the piece was originally written to be performed by a string quartet as the accompaniment to a dance piece by the choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir. For the album version, Jóhann rewrote the entire score, and it was recorded by a sixty-piece string orchestra. He also added a new final section and incorporated electronics alongside those original tape recordings of the singing computer.
The full story of the album can be read at ausersmanual.com
Jóhann Jóhannson "The Sun's Gone Dim And The Sky's Turned Black"
4AD BAD 2617
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Released: 10.06
2 Track CD Single / 12"
01 The Sun's Gone Dim And The Sky's Turned Black – mp3 sample
02 Passacaglia
Alongside "The Sun's Gone Dim And The Sky's Turned Black" (the closing track from "IBM 1401, A User's Manual") is an exclusive track called "Passacaglia", which is an early version of the finale, performed by string quartet.
Jóhann Jóhannson "Dís"
12 Tónar 12T004 (Iceland)
The Worker's Institute TWI002 (US)
Buy Dís in the Bad Taste shop (EU)
Buy Dís from workersinstitute.com (US)
Released: 11.04 (Iceland), 09.05 (US)
15 Track CD
01 Bankok Norðursins
02 10 Rokkstig
03 Sumavéi
04 Gúmmískór – mp3 sample
05 Já, Hemmi Minn – mp3 sample
06 Efripídes Og Neðripídel
07 Jarðaför
08 Þynnkudagur
09 Ruslpóstur
10 Ljósrit
11 Flugeldar
12 Ónefnt
13 Hótel Borg
14 Dís
15 Flugeldar II
The album Dís is based on music written for the Icelandic film of the same (the first film by director Silja Hauksdottir, based on her own novel.) Like the album Englabörn (Touch 2002), which was based on music originally written for the theater, Dís elaborates and expands on themes used in the film. The intention was to create an album which stands on its own, but which has certain qualities of soundtrack music, including repeated motifs and themes presented in different versions and contexts. For the recording, Jóhann asked members of the bands Funerals, Singapore Sling, Slowblow and Trabant, to join him, as well as experimental guitarist and fellow Kitchen Motors founder Hilmar Jensson and the vocalist Ragnheidur Grondal, one of Iceland's best loved singers. This gives the album a loose and intricate feel, with the mood veering from joyous to sad, on the surface buoyant and playful, but revealing a strong melancholic undercurrent. The sound sometimes recalls Apparat Organ Quartet although there are also some echoes of fellow Icelanders múm, as well as explorations of Jóhann's fascination with Krautrock and European film music. For the most part, though Jóhann aims for a genre-defying approach and an eclecticism which never threatens the unity and coherence of the album.
Jóhann writes: "For the film and album, Dís, I wanted to write a purely electric music, removed from the string and orchestral based music I had been writing recently. I resolved to use only instruments I had in my studio and whatever trashy things my friends would bring to the sessions. I wanted a loose, toy-like feel, I was trying to create a strange sort of melancholy, almost naïve bubble-gum pop, seen through a mechanical, motorik prism. Much like I believe the film captures quite well the zeitgeist of early 21st century Reykjavik, I tried to do the same with my music."
The album was initially only available in Iceland on the 12 Tónar label, but is now licensed to US label The Worker's Institute.
Mail order: (EU) smekkleysa.net, (US) workersinstitute.com
Jóhann Jóhannsson "Virðulegu Forsetar"
Touch TO:64
Virðulegu Forsetar reviews
Released: 10.04
4 Track CD/4 Track DVD-A Doublepack
Disc 1 - normal stereo CD
Disc 2 - hybrid DVD-Audio with a high resolution 96 khz, 24bit 5.1 surround mix and a 96khz 24bit stereo mix
01 Part 1
02 Part 2
03 Part 3
04 Part 4
This is Johann's second album for Touch, after the highly acclaimed 'Englabörn'. 'Virðulegu Forsetar' contains one hour-long piece for 11 brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. It's presented as an ordinary stereo CD and as a DVD-Audio with a high resolution 5.1 surround mix. 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". As the piece is written for a specific location, it made sense to record it live in this same space and attempt to 're-create' it for the listener with 5.1 surround technology. This was like creating an audio 'mold' or 'cast' of the inner sonic architecture of the building. In this way, the music engages in a dialogue with the space it's performed in and the recording process becomes as much a documentation of a place as a documentation of music.
Jóhann writes: "During the first live performance of the piece, the church ceiling was filled with blue helium balloons which were timed to fall extremely slowly to the ground during the performance and scatter among the audience. To our pleasant surprise, the balloons reacted with the sound, falling with greater frequency as the volume increased. During the performance the light slowly changed through the church windows as the sun went down. The concert was fairly late, ending at around midnight and it being a bright, cloudless spring evening, the combination of all these physical and natural processes made for quite a memorable moment". "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. I go through many different emotions listening to the piece, veering from intense joy to acute sadness. The central point is perhaps how a very simple thing can change by going through a very simple process - something about change and transformation and the inevitability of chaos."
'Virðulegu Forsetar' is performed by the Caput Ensemble, conducted by Gudni Franzson, with Skuli Sverrison on bass and electronics, Matthias M.D. Hemstock on bells, glockenspiel and electronics, Hordur Bragason and Gudmundur Sigurdsson on organs and Johann Johannsson on piano and electronics.
Jóhann Jóhannsson "Englabörn"
Touch TO:52
4AD CAD 2733
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Englabörn reviews
Originally released 10.02
Reissued 11.07
16 Track CD
01 Odi Et Amo – mp3 sample
02 Englabörn
03 Jói & Karen – mp3 sample
04 Thetta Gerist Á Bestu Bæjum
05 Sálfrædingur
06 Eg Sleppi Ther Aldrei
07 Sálfrædingur Deyr
08 Bad
09 Eg Heyrdi Allt Án Thess Ad Hlusta
10 Karen Býr Til Engil
11 Englabörn - Tilbrigdi
12 Eg Átti Gráa Æsku
13 Krókódill
14 Ef Ég Hefdi Aldrei...
15 ...eins og venjulegt fólk
16 Odi Et Amo - Bis
Englaborn is Jóhann's first solo album. It is derived from music he wrote for an Icelandic play of the same name. For the cd release on Touch, the music was revised and restructured to make it stand as a work on its own and not simply function as a collection of cues. The music is written for string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion. These elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. One song, "Odi et Amo", is a setting of Catullus's famous poem. He says "This was a happy accident; I'd written the music and wanted a computerized counter-tenor vocal singing a Latin text and was looking through a collection of Latin poetry when I remembered this poem from college and it did fit the melody perfectly and was also thematically perfect for the play. Its in the final scene. 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.
Jóhannsson continues: "The plays 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. That approach seems to have worked, at any rate, the music got really good reviews, the leading drama critic calling it "the most beautiful I've heard in Icelandic theatre." I must say Ive never had such a strong reaction to anything Ive done before; strangers have actually stopped me in the street and hugged me because of it...! Bizarre.. It is gratifying though, because its probably the most personal thing I've done. This stuff is very very close to me."
Apparat Organ Quartet "Apparat Organ Quartet"
Thule TM11
Buy Apparat Organ Quartet in the Bad Taste shop
Released 2002
9 Track CD
01 Romantika
02 Stereo Rock & Roll
03 The Anguish of Space-Time
04 Cruise Control
05 Ondula Nova
06 Global Capital
07 Seremonia
08 Charlie Tango # 2
09 Sofðu Litla Vél
Apparat Organ Quartet "Stereo Rock & Roll"
13 Amp AMP007S
Released 2002
2 Track 7"
01 Stereo Rock & Roll
02 Romantika (Live)
Apparat Organ Quartet "Romantika"
Duophonic DS45-CD34
Buy Romantika at Duphonic's online shop
Released 09.03
3 Track CD Single
01 Romantika
02 Macht Parat Den Apparat
03 Romantika Premix
Various - Kitchen Motors "Nart Nibbles"
Kitchen Motors KM3
Buy Nart Nibbles in the Bad Taste shop
Released 2001
9 Track Double CD compilation
Includes...
01 Apparat Organ Quartet "Nafnlaust Uppklapp"
Various - Kitchen Motors "Motorlab #2"
Kitchen Motors KM2
Buy Motorlab #2 in the Bad Taste shop
Released 2001
11 Track CD compilation
Includes...
06 Apparat Organ Quartet & TF3IRA "Charlie Tango Nｺ2"
07 Apparat Organ Quartet & TF3IRA "Ondula Nova"
08 Apparat Organ Quartet & TF3IRA "Salmur"
Various - Kitchen Motors "Motorlab #1"
Kitchen Motors KM1
Buy Motorlab #1 in the Bad Taste shop
Released 2000
4 Track CD compilation
Includes...
02: Jóhann Jóhannsson & The Caput Ensemble "Veltipúnktur"
