Artists
Biography
Jóhann Jóhannsson is Icelandic - he lives in Reykjavík - and is a musician, composer, producer and active member of the country’s artistic community (both as founder of the Kitchen Motors label and as a serial collaborator).
As a composer, his stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music has been quietly bewitching listeners over the last few years - and IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, his most ambitiously-orchestrated and appealing composition to date, is sure to expand his audience still further.
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s first two solo records, Englabörn (2002) and Virthulegu Forsetar (2004) were released by the respected British label Touch and, despite limited promotional resources, both found plenty of fans, receiving glowing reviews in music media around the world; Virthulegu Forsetar even found its way onto many critics’ end-of-year lists.
Englabörn, Jóhann's first solo album, is derived from music he originally wrote for an Icelandic play of the same name. For the CD release, 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. Performed by string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion, these elements were processed and manipulated, with him adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. One song, ‘Odi et Amo’, is a setting of Catullus's famous poem and the album received a very strong critical reaction:
“This first solo album from Jóhann Jóhannsson is absolutely beautiful, and it has only become more so over the past few months, sustaining me for long periods of time when other music just wouldn't do the trick.” – Pitchfork Media
“Jóhannsson’s score is a set of sixteen delicate miniatures, whose variations are amazingly complex despite their simple, descending melodies for strings, glockenspiel, harmonium, piano, organ and electronics. its precise use of metaphor, its exceptional balance (digital/analogue, harsh/soft, violent/tender etc.) and its expressive leitmotifs that unveil a profound sadness without ever wallowing in pathos.” – The Wire
Jóhann’s second album, Virthulegu Forsetar contains one one hour-long piece for eleven brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano and was presented as both an ordinary stereo CD and as a DVD-Audio (with a high-resolution 5.1 surround mix). The piece made its live debut in Hallgrímskirkja, a large church in Reykjavík 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 favour of an extended form that reveals a long, slow process.
Of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s many other projects, they most famously include his group of four organ players, the Apparat Organ Quartet, were brought together by their love of old electronic instruments, home-organs, farfisas and malfunctioning synthesizers picked up from the city dumps. Hailed by Neil Strauss (New York Times) as being “as innovative and meticulous as Sigur Rós, but who sound nothing like (them)”, they formed back in 1999 but only released their self-titled debut album internationally in 2006. The band have, however, played extensively across Europe and the States over the last couple of years, including shows at the Roskilde festival, London’s ICA, New York’s Central Park Summer Stage and at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Jóhann has also produced and written music with artists such as Marc Almond (the Stranger Things album) and, as well as working with Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, The Hafler Trio, Jaki Liebezeit and many others, his collaborations with the internationally renowned choreographer and dancer Erna Ómarsdóttir, (IBM 1401, A User’s Manual and Mysteries of Love) have been performed widely across Europe.
Music for films and theatre figure prominently throughout Jóhann’s work; his music featured in the film Wicker Park (Paul McGuigan, 2004) and has been an integral part of several art projects, such as Lev Manovich’s Mission to Earth (MIT Press, 2005) and Gregory Colbert’s acclaimed film Ashes and Snow (2006). He has also composed music for five feature films in his native Iceland with his most recent being for the film Blóobönd (2006) by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, which features a symphonic score for a sixty-piece string orchestra. In addition, Jóhann´s soundtrack album for the film, Dis (2005), features collaborations with members of the Funerals, Singapore Sling, Slowbow and Trabant and is quite unlike his solo material, veering between everything from ambient to pop.
It doesn’t finish there, Jóhann has also written music for numerous documentaries, theatre productions and several contemporary dance works. In addition, he is also a founder member of the Icelandic label / think tank / art collective Kitchen Motors, whose occasional record releases and live performances reads like a Who’s Who of Contemporary Icelandic Music.
As long-standing fans of his work, feted indie label 4AD signed Jóhann up to a solo-deal in 2005 and his first album for them, IBM 1401, A User's Manual, is being released in October 2006. Based upon work his father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, did back in 1964 when chief maintenance engineer of one of the country’s first computers, it was originally written for a string quartet, organ and electronics and to accompany a dance piece by long-standing collaborator friend, Erna Ómarsdóttir. For the album recording, Johann has rewritten it for a sixty-piece string orchestra , adding a new final movement and incorporating electronics and vintage reel-to-reel recordings of a singing IBM 1401 mainframe computer found in his father’s attic. The result is quite astonishing and sure to broaden Jóhann’s fanbase even further.
As a composer, his stately, slow-building and hauntingly melodic music has been quietly bewitching listeners over the last few years - and IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, his most ambitiously-orchestrated and appealing composition to date, is sure to expand his audience still further.
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s first two solo records, Englabörn (2002) and Virthulegu Forsetar (2004) were released by the respected British label Touch and, despite limited promotional resources, both found plenty of fans, receiving glowing reviews in music media around the world; Virthulegu Forsetar even found its way onto many critics’ end-of-year lists.
Englabörn, Jóhann's first solo album, is derived from music he originally wrote for an Icelandic play of the same name. For the CD release, 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. Performed by string quartet, piano, organ, glockenspiel and percussion, these elements were processed and manipulated, with him adding delicate electronic backgrounds to the otherwise entirely acoustic recordings. One song, ‘Odi et Amo’, is a setting of Catullus's famous poem and the album received a very strong critical reaction:
“This first solo album from Jóhann Jóhannsson is absolutely beautiful, and it has only become more so over the past few months, sustaining me for long periods of time when other music just wouldn't do the trick.” – Pitchfork Media
“Jóhannsson’s score is a set of sixteen delicate miniatures, whose variations are amazingly complex despite their simple, descending melodies for strings, glockenspiel, harmonium, piano, organ and electronics. its precise use of metaphor, its exceptional balance (digital/analogue, harsh/soft, violent/tender etc.) and its expressive leitmotifs that unveil a profound sadness without ever wallowing in pathos.” – The Wire
Jóhann’s second album, Virthulegu Forsetar contains one one hour-long piece for eleven brass players, percussion, electronics, organs and piano and was presented as both an ordinary stereo CD and as a DVD-Audio (with a high-resolution 5.1 surround mix). The piece made its live debut in Hallgrímskirkja, a large church in Reykjavík 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 favour of an extended form that reveals a long, slow process.
Of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s many other projects, they most famously include his group of four organ players, the Apparat Organ Quartet, were brought together by their love of old electronic instruments, home-organs, farfisas and malfunctioning synthesizers picked up from the city dumps. Hailed by Neil Strauss (New York Times) as being “as innovative and meticulous as Sigur Rós, but who sound nothing like (them)”, they formed back in 1999 but only released their self-titled debut album internationally in 2006. The band have, however, played extensively across Europe and the States over the last couple of years, including shows at the Roskilde festival, London’s ICA, New York’s Central Park Summer Stage and at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Jóhann has also produced and written music with artists such as Marc Almond (the Stranger Things album) and, as well as working with Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, The Hafler Trio, Jaki Liebezeit and many others, his collaborations with the internationally renowned choreographer and dancer Erna Ómarsdóttir, (IBM 1401, A User’s Manual and Mysteries of Love) have been performed widely across Europe.
Music for films and theatre figure prominently throughout Jóhann’s work; his music featured in the film Wicker Park (Paul McGuigan, 2004) and has been an integral part of several art projects, such as Lev Manovich’s Mission to Earth (MIT Press, 2005) and Gregory Colbert’s acclaimed film Ashes and Snow (2006). He has also composed music for five feature films in his native Iceland with his most recent being for the film Blóobönd (2006) by Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson, which features a symphonic score for a sixty-piece string orchestra. In addition, Jóhann´s soundtrack album for the film, Dis (2005), features collaborations with members of the Funerals, Singapore Sling, Slowbow and Trabant and is quite unlike his solo material, veering between everything from ambient to pop.
It doesn’t finish there, Jóhann has also written music for numerous documentaries, theatre productions and several contemporary dance works. In addition, he is also a founder member of the Icelandic label / think tank / art collective Kitchen Motors, whose occasional record releases and live performances reads like a Who’s Who of Contemporary Icelandic Music.
As long-standing fans of his work, feted indie label 4AD signed Jóhann up to a solo-deal in 2005 and his first album for them, IBM 1401, A User's Manual, is being released in October 2006. Based upon work his father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, did back in 1964 when chief maintenance engineer of one of the country’s first computers, it was originally written for a string quartet, organ and electronics and to accompany a dance piece by long-standing collaborator friend, Erna Ómarsdóttir. For the album recording, Johann has rewritten it for a sixty-piece string orchestra , adding a new final movement and incorporating electronics and vintage reel-to-reel recordings of a singing IBM 1401 mainframe computer found in his father’s attic. The result is quite astonishing and sure to broaden Jóhann’s fanbase even further.