Last week we lost one of my favorite film composers, Jóhann Jóhannson, tragically soon and unexpected at the age of 48. He is probably most known for his score of the Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory Of Everything” for which he won a Golden Globe, but also had a fantastic ongoing collaboration with Denis Villeneuve. He scored Villeneuve’s “Prisoners”, “Sicario” and “Arrival”, and was first announced to score “Blade Runner 2048” which he produced a finished score for before being replaced by the score factory that is Hans Zimmer.
He also did a full score for Darren Aronofsky's Mother!, just to realise that the movies was stronger with no music at all. Yesterday Olafur Arnalds posted this on Instagram:
My favorite Jóhann story is when he had spent a year writing the score for Darren Aronofsky's "Mother" and at some point realised that the film was better with no music at all. He proceeded to convince Darren to delete everything. It takes a real, selfless artist to do that. To realise the piece is better without you.
The most important part of creating art is the process, and Jóhann seemed to understand process. The score needed to be written first in order to realise that it was redundant. So in my view, Mother still has a score by Jóhann. The score is just silence... deafening, genius silence.
Johann Johannson was icelandic but lived here in Copenhagen for some time. I had the pleasure of recording a session for him at a point before he became a household name in Hollywood. The music was for a Facebook commercial and I noted that the composition was quite sad, to which he replied that to him the most beautiful music always has a melancholic vein.
I think this shines through in his work which is very emotional saturated. As a composer I find he was not as interested in developing of melodic material or traditional counterpoint as much as the use of harmonic structures over time to produce hauntingly sad and beautiful soundscapes. It would be a cliché to say that his tonal language is particular icelandic but none the less I feel that his slow-building progressions does share some qualities with other contemporary icelandic composers as Hilmar Hilmarsson, Olafur Arnalds and Anna Thorvaldsdottir - and I'm sure he has been an inspiration for many more to come.
Listening guide:
Apparat Organ Quartet - Apparat Organ Quartet (2002)
Johann Johannson has a past in the icelandic indie scene and in the early 00s he founded Apparat Organ Quartet which is a synthesizer quartet with drums as the fifth member. Originally formed to perform Steve Reich’s Four Organs (1970) their debut album has a very kraut-rock feel and sounds like a hard-hitting modern take on Kraftwerk with similar vocoder voices.
IBM 1401, A user manual (2006)
This 2006 solo album is probably my favorite of his works. It was Jóhannson’s 4AD debut and it is just hauntingly beautiful and feels very personal. The work takes it’s inspiration from one of the first computers to arrive in Iceland, the IBM 1401 which Jóhannson’s father was in charge of. The work includes sound from the computer and spoken-word manual readings, but in a weird way it blends effortlessly with the score that surrounds it.
Miners’ Hymns (2011)
Miners’ Hymns is a collaboration with the american filmmaker Bill Morrison. It’s a silent B/W documentary of archive footage of the coal mine workers of North East England. The score is epic, profound and has a almost heroic feel which blends with the pictures to create a moving tribute to the working class.
Arrival (2016)
While his scores for The Theory Of Everything and Sicario both were Oscar nominated, his score for Villeneuve’s Arrival has to be my favorite of his Hollywood scores. The score was unfairly disqualified from the nominee selection because of the inclusion of a Max Richter piece in the opening and ending scenes.
The Arrival OST is not free from Zimmeresque BRAAAAAAM moments, which also featured on the Sicario OST, but I suspect this just is the deal if you want to be a blockbuster composer in these times. It also make use of modern elements as synths and the same pulsating electronic rhythm which ties the soundtrack very well together. With much grace it blends easily with the more acoustic orchestration and repetitive vocal samples is a very clever way to incorporate the movies theme of language and communication.
Here, it also feels like he quotes his own works; Decyphering reminds me of IBM 1601 and One Of Twelve features the same dropping bass that sounds like it's directly lifted from Sicario. And finally, it succeeds to have that fantastic alien sound which is completely unrecognizable - it sounds a little like a horn, but not quite, there's more throat in the sound.
I'm deeply saddened by the fact that we won't have more movies scored by Johannsson, but at the same time I'm looking forward to seeing James Marsh's The Mercy and Garth Davis' Mary Magdalene, and I'm hoping to someday hearing his take on the Blade Runner soundtrack.
Ah man when I heard that score in Arrival I knew this man was going to do big things. Great potential was lost. RIP =/
Thanks for posting this. If I had to describe a particular theme in music I love, it is that sense of melancholy that was ever present in his music. I've been going back through his work since Saturday just trying to soak in his legacy. Really hoping his Blade Runner score emerges at some point.
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