Jóhann Jóhannsson

The award-winning Icelandic composer, musician, and producer Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969–2018) combined electronic sounds with classical orchestration in his work. His oeuvre is characterized by influences from Baroque music, minimalism, drone, and electroacoustic music. In 2015, Jóhannsson received the Golden Globe for his score for *The Theory of Everything*, James Marsh's film biography about the life of physicist Stephen Hawking, as well as nominations for the Oscar®, BAFTA, Grammy®, and Critic’s Choice. In 2016, Jóhannsson was again nominated for the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA, this time for Best Original Score for director Denis Villeneuve's film *Sicario*. In the same year, Villeneuve's *Arrival*, a film about linguists deciphering the sign language of aliens, was also released, and Jóhannsson's music for it was nominated for a Grammy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA. His last film score was for *The Mercy*, James Marsh's film biography of sailor Donald Crowhurst, released on February 2, 2018. At the age of eleven, Jóhannsson began his first piano and trombone lessons in his hometown of Reykjavík. He abandoned formal music education in high school, and after studying literature and languages at university, he spent ten years composing and playing music for indie rock bands. He used droning, overdriven, and feedback-enhanced guitar sounds to compose pieces and create complex, multi-layered soundscapes. Through the digital manipulation of acoustic instruments, Jóhannsson created music that combined acoustic and electronic sounds into something entirely individual and new. His first album, *Englabörn*, was released in 2002 on the British label Touch. It shows various influences from Erik Satie, Bernard Herrmann, Purcell, and Moondog to electronic music released by labels such as Mille Plateaux and Mego. His later works include *Virðulegu Forsetar* (2004) for brass, electronic drones, and percussion, as well as the orchestral albums *Fordlândia* (2008) and *IBM 1401 – A User’s Manual* (2006). The latter was inspired by the sounds of the electromagnetic processes of the first groundbreaking IBM mainframes. In 2010, Jóhannsson collaborated with avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison on *The Miners’ Hymns*, a lyrical and contemplative reflection on Britain's lost industrial past and the legacy of the mining regions in Northeast England. The film score, conceived as a concert performance and also released as an album, combines brass, organ, and electronics. In 2015, *Drone Mass*, Jóhannsson's piece for string quartet, electronics, and vocal ensemble, premiered at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In addition to his Hollywood soundtracks, Jóhannsson also composed music for a number of other successful films and documentaries, such as Lou Ye's *Mystery*, János Szász’s *The Notebook*, and Max Kestner’s *Dreams in Copenhagen*. In 2015, he completed his first short film as a director, *End of Summer*. The film is a slow, hypnotic journey through the stark landscapes of the remote island of South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula, with the images accompanied by a haunting soundtrack. In 2017, Jóhannsson presented another ambitious directorial project at the Manchester International Festival, *Last and First Men*. Here, a text based on Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel and read by Tilda Swinton is juxtaposed with an impressive futuristic yet decaying landscape; filmed by Brandth Grøvlen in former Yugoslavia, it features Jóhannsson's own symphonic music. As a composer of orchestral, chamber, and stage music, he wrote works for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Theatre of Voices, Det Norske Teatret, and the Icelandic National Theatre, among others. Jóhannsson made his debut with Deutsche Grammophon with his first studio album in six years in September 2016. *Orphée* was inspired by different interpretations of the Orpheus myth and uses a wide palette of sounds—acoustic instruments and electronics—to explore the boundaries between darkness and light. It deals with impermanence, memory, and the elusive nature of beauty, and ultimately celebrates art and its power of renewal. Jóhann Jóhannsson died on February 9, 2018, at the age of 48 in Berlin. 2/2018