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Johann Johannsson



Last Updated: 11/17/2009

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Status: Single
City: Reykjavik
Country: IS
Signup Date: 7/8/2006

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Thursday, August 21, 2008 
Johann's new album "Fordlandia" will be release worldwide on November 3rd (Nov. 4th in US). Two new tracks from the album have been uploaded into the myspace player.

Here is the press release for the album:

Jóhann Jóhannsson returns with a new album, Fordlândia on November 3rd (ROW) / 4th (US).An American magnate builds a doomed utopia in the depths of the Brazilian rainforest. A Victorian poetess laments the death of Pan. A pagan rocket scientist blows himself up in his Californian garage. A crippled German physicist draws up the equations which can make faster than light travel possible, unseen by the rest of the world. Jóhann Jóhannsson..'s spellbinding new album draws these tantalising threads together, weaving a musical tapestry of hypnotic richness and surprising emotional depth.Jóhannsson makes stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music - which frequently combines electronic processing with classical orchestrations - that has been quietly bewitching listeners for the last few years. His first two solo records - Englabörn (2002), written for string quartet, percussion and electronics, and Virthulegu Forsetar (2004), written for brass ensemble, drones and percussion – were released by the singular British independent Touch label.Englabörn was derived from music that Johann wrote for an Icelandic play using string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion. These elements were processed and manipulated, adding delicate electronic accents to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. Virthulegu Forsetar was a one hour-long piece for eleven brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano. It shares Englabörn..'s quiet, elegiac beauty, but replaces the brevity of the first album..'s exquisite miniatures with an extended sweep of sound that reveals a long, slow process of evolution.Jóhann is involved in many different projects in his native Iceland, including the all-analog Apparat Organ Quartet and Kitchen Motors, the art organization/think tank/record label which specializes in instigating collaborations and art projects across diverse artforms. Among many other things, he has also recently composed scores for the award-winning animator Marc Craste (Varmints, 2008) and the American independent film Personal Effects (David Hollander, 2008).Johann..'s first release for 4AD, IBM 1401 - A User's Manual (2006), involved a sixty-piece string orchestra recorded at Prague's legendary Barrandov sound stage and incorporated electronics and vintage reel-to-reel recordings of a 1960..'s IBM 1401 mainframe computer and its accompanying instruction manual.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.
Jay

 
Can't wait!! Any chance of a new Apparat Organ Quartet album anytime soon?
 
Posted by Jay on Friday, August 22, 2008 - 4:37 PM
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Chris Hill
Chris Hill

 
I'll reserve a spot for this in my top 10 2008 right now.
:)
 
Posted by Chris Hill on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 9:05 PM
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