THE BEST SCORES OF 2016 – Part One

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 01/02/2017
ARRIVAL soundtrack | ©2016 Deutsche Grammophon

THE BEST SCORES OF 2016 ARRIVAL  (Johann Johannsson / Deutsche Grammophon) An Icelander whose intensely psychological, yet still melodically accessible modernist scores like PRISONERS and SICARIO speak in alien languages of subsonic strings and nerve-chilling brass at last gets his actual close encounter as he translates the Rorschach Test language of obelisk / monolith dwelling inter-dimensional deities here. Johannsson brilliantly captures both a sense of wonder and fear with beholding the mind-boggling, verbally-scrambled unknown as whale cry motifs join with alternately moaning and chattering voices, backed by a strong orchestral sound that serves as a powerful universal musical translator in a way that’s […]Read On »


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ARRIVAL: Composer Johan Johannsson learns to speak in alien tongues – Interview

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 11/20/2016
ARRIVAL soundtrack | ©2016 Deutsche Grammophon

Maybe it’s something in the water in Iceland that’s produced an invasion of mournfully beautiful and stylistically innovative musicians, each setting out to revolutionize the word with a tonal language of ear-opening, futuristic art. In much the same way that Bjork has caught the world’s attention with her mind blowing take on pop, Johann Johannson has been terraforming a sometimes typical landscape of film scoring into a thing of haunting beauty. Listening to such works as PRISONERS, McCANICK, FREE THE MIND and his Oscar-nominated THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING and SICARIO are haunting journeys into humanity at its worst, and best. Low, nearly sub-sonic […]Read On »


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