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JOHANNSSON, JOHANN - Fordlandia

Format: do-LP Label & Cat.Number: NTOV NTOV07 Release Year: 2013 Note: luxurious vinyl re-issue of CD from 2006 (4AD), gatefold sleeve, clear vinyl; masterful subtle neo-classic with additional electronic sounds, based on the theme "failed utopia"... Price (incl. 19% VAT): €24.00 Warning: Currently we do not have this album in stock! More Info "Double vinyl, gatefold sleeve reissue (clear vinyl) of Johannsson's 4 AD album on Johann's own NTOV label. The album has never before been released on vinyl!! His most recent album "The Miners' Hymn" was released through Fat Cat Records. The BBC has called Johann "an intrepid music enigma" and his work was called "elegant, haunting and melancholic". He is currently writing the film score for the new WB movie "Prisoners" starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, to be released in the autumn of 2013. One of the two main threads running through the album is this idea of failed utopia, as represented by the “Fordlândia” title - the story of the rubber plantation Henry Ford established in the Amazon in the 1920’s, and his dreams of creating an idealized American town in the middle of the jungle complete with white picket fences, hamburgers and alcohol prohibition. The project - started because of the high price Ford had to pay for the rubber necessary for his cars’ tyres - failed, of course, as the indigenous workers soon rioted against the alien conditions. It reminded me of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, this doomed attempt at taming the heart of darkness. The remains of the town are still there today. The image of the Amazon forest slowly and surely reclaiming the ruins of Fordlândia is the one that gave spark to this album. For the structure and themes of the album I was influenced by the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Herzog and Kenneth Anger. I was interested in a kind of poetic juxtaposition and an alchemical fusion of themes and ideas, which I feel is similar to the way Anger uses montage as an alchemical technique - as a way of casting a spell. During the making of the album, I also had in mind the Andre Breton quote about convulsive beauty, which he saw in the image of “an abandoned locomotive overgrown by luxurious vegetation”. There is a strong connection to the IBM 1401 album in terms of both thematic and musical ideas and I see the two albums as belonging to a series of works. - Jóhann Jóhannsson." [label info] "Zweiter Teil der Trilogie, die mit "IBM 1401,.." begann. JOHANNSSONs melancholisch-subtile, so nostalgische Neo-Klassik könnte direkt aus einer Komposition von ARVO PÄRT stammen, wenn da nicht die elektronischen Elemente wären, die behutsam ergänzt werden. Musik von erhabender Qualität & Atmosphäre, romantisch, tief emotional..." [Drone Rec.] "Faszinierende Ideen und Melodien: der Isländer mit dem zweiten Teil seiner Trilogie: Johann Johannsson ist ein wahres Multitalent. Der Isländer ist Musiker (sowohl solo als auch im Apparat Organ Quartet), Komponist, Produzent (Barry Adamson, Pan Sonic, Hafler Trio, Jaki Liebezeit) und Labelgründer (Kitchen Motor). 2006 erschien das Album "IBM 1401, A User’s Manual", auf dem sich Johannsson den Themen künstliche Intelligenz und amerikanische Markennamen mit Kultcharakter widmete. Es war der erste Teil einer Trilogie, die mit "Fordlandia" ihre Fortsetzung findet. Während "IBM 1401..." eine sehr persönliche Geschichte der Technik und ihres zwangsläufigen Wertverlustes erzählt, sind die Einflüsse auf "Fordlandia" vielfältigerer Natur. Das Ergebnis ist voller faszinierender Ideen und Melodien, "Fordlandia" verbindet die wachsende Pracht des Vorgängers - einige Teile wurden mit demselben Orchester in Prag eingespielt - mit der Intimität seines 2002er-Debüts "Englabörn". Mit traumhafter innerer Logik bewegt es sich zwischen berauschenden Rhythmen und kristallklaren musikalischen Themen." [press info] "Fordlandia brings together the soaring grandeur of its predecessor [...] moving between heady, melting cadences and crystalline motifs with gorgeous, dreamlike logic. This coverage of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson's sixth studio album is a continuation of my personal revisit through the albums that have changed my life, as yet another entry in my occasional Flashback series. It's really hard to write about this one, my friends. Since the sudden passing of this great composer of our generation, it's been more than difficult to even revisit his works and keep emotions at bay. I've had a great privilege to meet Jóhann on several occasions in New York, Chicago, and his home tome of Reykjavik and I must assert that beyond being one of the top (if not the top) contemporary musician, he was a great human being. He leaves behind a legacy of music, and an unfortunate deep wounding void, which I can only hope that we one day will heal, through memories and music. With these short passing words, let's turn to flashback on Fordlandia. Now more than a decade ago, when I was regularly creating mixes for one of my first podcasts [to be republished, by the way, in the upcoming months, one entry at a time, so watch this space!], an idea came across to compile music for my funeral. One thing I am always sure about – I will die. And when I pass on, music will be filling in the void that was once my presence. Why shouldn’t I be the one to select the pieces that would make others weep? It is macabre, I'll admit. For my opening track, I turned to Jóhann Jóhannsson, and his "Odi Et Amo" piece from Englabörn (4AD, 2007). A year later, with the release of Fordlandia, I wanted to compile a second volume. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to come across saying that Jóhannsson’s compositions are full of funeral sound [perhaps that should be a genre in itself?]. Yet, this Icelandic-born modern classical musician composes some of the most beautiful and soul drenching works that I have ever heard. Perhaps, that's yet another reason, why it's so hard to listen to it after all these years. The saturation of emotion approaches even my limits, and my eyes swell up with tears, as the concrete humanity gets cleansed in the rain, out in the windows of my crawling train. Prior to these contemporary classical conceptual pieces, which culminated as studio albums, Jóhannsson also produced many soundtracks for films, performances and documentaries. Among these, you must recognize Prisoners (2013), The Theory of Everything (2014), Sicario (2015), and of course, Arrival (2016). I will leave off my thoughts on the unfortunate Blade Runner blunder - plenty has been already said about that tragedy online. It would be an understatement to say that Jóhann Jóhannsson was a prominent figure in the Icelandic contemporary artistic community. After all, he was one of the co-founders (along with Kira Kira and Hilmar Jensson) behind the Kitchen Motors institution - “a think tank, a record label, and an art collective specializing in instigating collaborations and putting on concerts, exhibitions, performances, chamber operas, producing films, books and radio shows based on the ideals of experimentation, collaboration, the search for new art forms and the breaking down of barriers between forms, genres and disciplines.” This entity, is sadly, now defunct. Thematically, Fordlandia continued the exploration of technology where Jóhannsson’s previous conceptual album, IBM 1401, a User’s Manual (4AD, 2006) left off. Fordlandia is the second installment in a proposed trilogy dealing with industrial archeology. On this release Jóhannsson elaborates: one of the two main threads running through [Fordlandia] is this idea of failed utopia, as represented by [its] title – the story of the rubber plantation Henry Ford established in the Amazon in the 1920’s, and his dreams of creating an idealized American town in the middle of the jungle complete with white picket fences, hamburgers and alcohol prohibition.“ Fordlandia thus becomes a second installment in a series of works documenting human hunger for ideals, technological progress, doomed failures, and the beauty of nature reclaiming itself. We never got the third, although, arguably, The Miners' Hymns, released in 2011, could be thought of as a continuation of the downfalls explored through sound. Such it is still, music for the born and the departed. Highly recommended!" [Headphone Commute]