Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

With beautiful orchestration by Arnar Bjarnason from the very start of the title track, you know this is something special. Mr. Jóhannsson’s past credits include producing and writing for diverse artitsts as Marc Almond (Stranger Things album), Barry Adamson and Pan Sonic, Hafler Trio, The Magga Stína and many others. He has also written music for the theatre, documentaries and soundtrack music for several feature films.

Talking of films, ‘The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)’ has a touch of The Omen about it and gets rather gothic towards the end. Jóhannsson has also used pipe organs recorded in Drammen, Reykjavik and Prague on this album and it’s far cry (or is it) from his other album on 4AD, IBM 1401, A User’s Manual that was based on electronic sounds derived from the IBM 1401 Data Processing System.

That album included ‘The Sun’s Gone Dim And The Sky’s Turned Black’ (based on the poem by Dorothy Parker and I loved that track, see review HERE) and both that and this new album features the City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

This is modern classical that’s different from the Steve Reich Daniel Variatons as it’s a gapless album the ‘forces’ you to listen to it as one piece. It’s very intense at times (‘Chimaerica’ with Guðmundur Sigurðsson on pipe organ)and also poetic (‘Florandia - Aerial View’) with ‘interludes’ lilke the mostly clarinet piece on ‘Melodia (iv)’ and the choral ‘The Great God Pan Is Dead’.

However, this is just the build up to the climax of the album, the last two tracks, ‘Melodia (Guidelines For A Propulsion Device Based On Heim’s Quantum Theory)’ (silly title, monster track - especially as the ending sounds like a steam train racing over the frozen plains) and ‘How We Left Fordlandia’ (magnificently dark and uplifting at the same time).

Apparently Fordlandia and IBM 1401, A User’s Manual are part of a trilogy and the record label boast of this new album, “The power of Beethoven and the beauty of Tchaikovsky…in our days. Listen to this absolute masterpiece of art!!” And I can’t disagree, bring on part 3!

Reviewed: Jóhann Jóhannsson - Fordlandia (4AD) Cat. No: CAD 2812 CD Release date: 3rd November 2008
3 & 5 strings by Greta Guðmundsdóttir, Guðmundur Kristmundsson, Hrafnkell Orri Egilsson and Una Sveinbjarnardóttir
Tracklisting:
1 Fordlandia (13:43)
2 melodia (i) (1:56)
3 The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!) (6:25)
4 melodia (ii) (1:49)
5 Fordlandia - Aerial View (4:33)
6 melodia (iii) (3:12)
7 Chimaerica (3:23)
8 melodia (iv) (2:45)
9 The Great God Pan Is Dead (4:56)
10 Melodia (Guidelines For A Propulsion Device Based On Heim’s Quantum Theory) (9:04)
11 How We Left Fordlandia (15:25)

Links
www.johannjohannsson.com
www.ausersmanual.com
www.myspace.com/johannjohannsson
www.pragueorchestras.com
www.4ad.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Parker