Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson (; 19 September 1969 – 9 February 2018) was an Icelandic composer who wrote music for a wide array of media including theatre, dance, television, and film. His work is stylised by its blending of traditional orchestration with contemporary electronic elements. Jóhann released solo albums from 2002 onward. In 2016, he signed with

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

, through which he released his last solo album, '' Orphée''. Some of his works in film include the original scores for

Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve (; born October 3, 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) for Best Direction, winning for '' Maelström'' in 2001, '' Polytechnique'' in 2009, ''Incendies ...

's ''Prisoners'', ''Sicario'', and ''Arrival'', and James Marsh's ''The Theory of Everything''. Jóhann was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Best Original Score for both ''The Theory of Everything'' and ''Sicario'', and won a

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

for Best Original Score for the former. He was a music and sound consultant on ''

Mother! ''Mother!'' (stylized as ''mother!'') is a 2017 American psychological horror film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, Brian Gleeson, and Kr ...

'', directed by

Darren Aronofsky Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction. Arono ...

in 2017. His scores for ''Mary Magdalene'' and ''Mandy'' were released posthumously. His only directorial work, ''

Last and First Men ''Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future'' is a " future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from ...

'', premiered at the Manchester International Festival in 2017, where he also performed the score live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Early life and career

Jóhann was born on 19 September 1969 in

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

, Iceland to Jóhann Gunnarsson, a maintenance engineer who worked for IBM, and Edda Thorkelsdóttir. He learned the piano and trombone from the age of 11, but had given them up during his teenage years. Jóhann attended the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servant ...

, where he studied languages and literature. Jóhann started his musical career in the late 1980s in the proto-

shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming vol ...

influenced band Daisy Hill Puppy Farm who released a couple of EPs which were played by British DJ

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

and received a fan letter from

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal ...

. He went on to work as a guitarist and producer playing in Icelandic

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

bands, like Olympia, Unun and Ham. In 1999, Jóhann co-founded Kitchen Motors; a think tank, art organisation and music label that encouraged interdisciplinary collaborations between artists from

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, classical,

metal A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...

and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

. His own sound arose out of these musical experimentations.

Solo works

Jóhann's first solo album, ''Englabörn'', was a suite based on the music written for the theatre piece of the same name. Jóhann approached the composition by recording string instruments and processing them through

digital filter In signal processing, a digital filter is a system that performs mathematical operations on a sampled, discrete-time signal to reduce or enhance certain aspects of that signal. This is in contrast to the other major type of electronic filter, t ...

s, which allowed him to deconstruct the

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

s and reassemble them. The album combined holy minimalism,

Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conse ...

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer. Purcell's style of Baroque music was uniquely English, although it incorporated Italian and French elements. Generally considered among the greatest Eng ...

and Moondog with the

of labels such as

Mille Plateaux ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborative ...

and Mego.

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

gave ''Englabörn'' a score of 8.9, and described it as "exceptionally restrained, the piano moving like droplets off of slowly melting icicles, the violin breathing warmth from above. The hesitation of each breath and falling bead feels as though it were a Morton Feldman piece condensed to three minutes." For his second album, ''Virðulegu Forsetar'', an hour-long ambient piece, Jóhann used an orchestra of 11 brass players,

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The gloc ...

, piano and organ, with added bells and electronics, creating a sound that combined classical, ambient and experimental music. '' IBM 1401, A User's Manual'', Jóhann's fourth studio album, was released on 30 October 2006 on the 4AD label. It was inspired by his father, an IBM engineer and one of Iceland's first computer programmers, who used early hardware to compose melodies during his downtime at work. Jóhann used sounds produced from the electromagnetic emissions of the

IBM 1401 The IBM 1401 is a variable-wordlength decimal computer that was announced by IBM on October 5, 1959. The first member of the highly successful IBM 1400 series, it was aimed at replacing unit record equipment for processing data stored on pu ...

as part of the composition. '' Fordlandia'', Jóhann's sixth full-length studio album, was released in November 2008 via 4AD, and was thematically influenced by the failure of

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

's Brazilian rubber plant

Fordlândia Fordlândia (, ''Ford-land'') is a district and adjacent area of in the city of Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. It is located on the east banks of the Tapajós river roughly south of the city of Santarém. It was established by ...

. In 2010, Jóhann collaborated with filmmaker Bill Morrison on ''The Miners' Hymns'' (2011), a film and accompanying composition for a brass band, pipe organ and electronics, based on coal-mining in

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. The film was noted for celebrating "social, cultural, and political aspects of the extinct industry, and the strong regional tradition of colliery brass bands". The overall piece was itself a tribute to the miners strikes which occurred in the area during the 1980s. The piece premiered live in

Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

in July 2010 and was released on CD and DVD in May 2011. The album was described by the BBC as "a gorgeous brass-based

requiem A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

for northeast England's former mining community". Writing in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

'',

Fiona Maddocks Fiona Maddocks is a British music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "one of the UK's leading writers and commentators on classical music", Maddocks has been chief music critic of ''The Observer'' since 2010. She ...

gave the London debut performance of the score at the

Barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe In the Middle ...

five stars, writing, "The strange counterpoint between an Icelandic minimalist, an American filmmaker and a bitter episode in recent British history has resulted in a work as unclassifiable as it is unforgettable." In 2021 the ''Gold Dust'' EP was released, containing unused pieces from various previous projects.

Film work

Jóhann had scored a number of works concurrent with his solo career through the 2000s including the Icelandic comedy ''Dis'' in 2004, TV series ''Svartir englar'' in 2007, and ''In the Arms of My Enemy'' in 2007. However it is his work with

for which he is best known. His first collaboration with Villeneuve was ''

Prisoners A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

'' in 2013. He subsequently worked on Villeneuve's films ''

Sicario Sicario ( es, hired assassin, link=no) may refer to: * ''Sicario'' (1994 film), a Venezuelan drama film by Joseph Novoa * ''Sicario'' (2015 film), an American crime film by Denis Villeneuve ** '' Sicario: Day of the Soldado'' (2018; titled ''Sic ...

'' (2015), which was nominated for

Academy Award for Best Original Score The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by t ...

, and '' Arrival'' (2016). Jóhann joined Villeneuve once again to work on ''

Blade Runner 2049 ''Blade Runner 2049'' is a 2017 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. A sequel to the 1982 film ''Blade Runner'', the film stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, ...

,'' but at some point during production Villeneuve decided that the music needed a change in direction. In describing the artistic process for ''

'', Villeneuve stated that "the movie needed something different, and I needed to go back to something closer to

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

. Jóhann and I decided that I will need to go in another direction." Villeneuve brought in

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

and

Benjamin Wallfisch Benjamin Mark Lasker Wallfisch (born 7 August 1979) is a British composer, conductor, orchestrator, and producer of film scores. Since the mid-2000s, he has worked on over 75 feature films, including composing original scores for ''Blade Ru ...

to complete the project. Jóhann's work on James Marsh's '' The Theory of Everything'' won the

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications ...

in 2015. His final works were for the films '' Mandy'', '' The Mercy'', and ''

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurre ...

''. In an interview following the release of ''Arrival'', Jóhann commented on his process stating that "it's about putting yourself in a receptive state of mind where you react to inputs, and it can be from anywhere. It doesn't really matter if you're writing for film or if you're doing your own piece; you always have to put yourself into that space." He went on to say, "there are practical parameters, of course, involved in writing film music rather than doing your own album, but I view them very much as the same body of work. And, for me, there are very clear lines for me between ''

Englabörn Englabörn is the first full length studio album by Icelandic musician Jóhann Jóhannsson, released by Touch Music in 2002. Music included on Englabörn was composed for a play by Hávar Sigurjónsson and was played by string quartet, percussion ...

'' to ''Arrival''." Prior to his death he had been hired to compose the score for Disney's ''

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

'', but died before he had begun work on it. His only feature film directed by himself, ''

'', premiered two years after his death at the

70th Berlin International Film Festival The 70th annual Berlin International Film Festival took place from 20 February to 1 March 2020. It was the first under the leadership of new Berlin Film Festival heads, business administration director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director ...

, where it received widespread acclaim.

Collaborations and other projects

In March 2015, Jóhann teamed up with ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and the

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

Award-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth to perform ''Drone Mass''. described as a contemporary oratorio, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His list of collaborators included

Tim Hecker Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning atmospheric ambient albums such as '' Harmony in Ultraviolet'' (2006), '' Ravedeath, 1972'' (2011) and '' Virgins'' (2013), has been widely ...

Hildur Guðnadóttir Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir (born 4 September 1982) is an Icelandic musician and composer. A classically trained cellist, she has played and recorded with the bands Pan Sonic, Throbbing Gristle, Múm, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes, and ...

Pan Sonic Pan Sonic was a Finnish electronic music group founded in Turku in 1993. The group consisted of Mika Vainio, Ilpo Väisänen, and Sami Salo. Salo left in 1996 leaving Pan Sonic a duo. The group was originally named Panasonic until 1998. In De ...

, CAN drummer

Jaki Liebezeit Jaki Liebezeit (born Hans Liebezeit; 26 May 1938 – 22 January 2017) was a German drummer, best known as a founding member of experimental rock band Can. He was called "one of the few drummers to convincingly meld the funky and the cerebral". ...

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. ...

Barry Adamson Barry Adamson (born 11 June 1958)Biography
. Barryadamson.com. is an English pop and rock music ...

, and Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))). In 1999, Jóhann founded the Apparat Organ Quartet, which has released two albums since 2002 with live performances in Europe, America and Japan.

Personal life

Jóhann left Reykjavík in the early 2000s, living in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

before settling in

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it h ...

, Berlin. He had a daughter, Karolina Jóhannsdóttir, who lives in Copenhagen.

Death

Jóhann died in Berlin on 9 February 2018 at the age of 48. German toxicology reports indicated that a lethal combination of cocaine and flu medication was the likely cause of his death.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''

'' (2002,

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch ( haptic perception), as well as temperature ( thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It ...

) ** ''Englabörn'' (re-issue) (2007, 4AD) * '' Virðulegu Forsetar'' (2004, Touch) * '' IBM 1401, A User's Manual'' (2006,

12 Tónar 12 Tónar (, 'twelve tones') is a record shop in Reykjavík, Iceland, and also a record label for Icelandic artists. It is located on Skólavörðustígur 15, in downtown Reykjavík. Founded in 1998 in Reykjavík, 12 Tónar has been well recei ...

, 4AD) * '' Fordlandia'' (2008, 4AD) * ''And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees'' (2009, 12 Tónar, NTOV) * '' End of Summer'' (2015, Sonic Pieces) – in collaboration with

& Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe * '' Orphée'' (2016,

) * '' Englabörn & Variations'' (2018, Deutsche Grammophon) (''

'' reissue) * '' 12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann'' (2019, Deutsche Grammophon) – recorded by Echo Collective * ''Gold Dust'' (2021) * ''Drone Mass'' (2022)

Film score albums

* ''Dís'' (2004, 12 Tónar, in Iceland; 2005, The Worker's Institute, in the US) * ''Personal Effects'' (2009, Deutsche Grammophon) * ''The Miners' Hymns'' (2011, 12 Tónar, FatCat) * ''Free The Mind'' (2012, NTOV) * ''Copenhagen Dreams'' (2012, 12 Tónar) * ''Prisoners'' (2013,

WaterTower Music WaterTower Music (formerly New Line Records from 2000 to 2010) is an American record label serving as the in-house music label and run by entertainment company Warner Bros., ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The name and logo are based ...

) * ''McCanick'' by John C. Waller (2014,

Milan Records Milan Records is a record label located in Los Angeles, California specializing in film scores and soundtrack albums. In addition, Milan boasts an extensive electronic catalog which features down-tempo, chillout, and eclectic electronic releases ...

) * ''I Am Here'' (with B.J. Nilsen) (2014,

Ash International Touch (sometimes mistakenly written 'Touch Records' and sometimes written Touch Music, which is technically the publishing side of the company) is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. Touch was founded in 1982 by Jon ...

) * ''The Theory of Everything'' (2014, Back Lot Music) * ''Sicario'' (2015,

Varèse Sarabande Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer r ...

) * '' Arrival'' (2016, Deutsche Grammophon) * ''The Mercy'' (2018, Deutsche Grammophon) * ''Mary Magdalene'' (2018, Milan Records) * ''Mandy'' (2018, Lakeshore/Invada) * ''

'' (2020, Deutsche Grammophon) * ''Blind Massage'' (with Jonas Colstrup) (2022, Soundtrack Magazine) * ''The Shadow Play'' (with Jonas Colstrup) (2022, Soundtrack Magazine)

Singles

* "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black" (2006, 4AD)

Artworks

* ''

Ashes and Snow ''Ashes and Snow'' by Canadian artist Gregory Colbert is an installation of photographic artworks, films, and a novel in letters that travels in the Nomadic Museum, a temporary structure built exclusively to house the exhibition. The work explores ...

'' (Gregory Colbert, 2002)

Plays

* ''Margrét Mikla'' by Kristín Ómarsdóttir (1996, Icelandic Take-away Theatre) * ''Vitleysingarnir'' by Ólafur Haukur Símonarsson (2000, Hafnarfjördur Theater) * ''Fireface'' by Marius Von Mayerberg (2000, RÚV) * ''Englabörn'' by Hávar Sigurjónsson (2001, Hafnarfjördur Theater) * ''Kryddlegin Hjörtu'' by Laura Esquivel (2002, Borgarleikhús) * ''Viktoría og Georg'' by Ólafur Haukur Símonarsson (2002, Icelandic National Theatre) * ''Pabbastrákur'' by Hávar Sigurjónsson (2003, Icelandic National Theatre) * ''Jón Gabríel Borkman'' by Henrik Ibsen (2004, Icelandic National Theatre) * ''Dínamít'' by Birgir Sigurðsson (2005, Icelandic National Theatre) * '' Døden i Teben'' by

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

Jon Fosse Jon Olav Fosse (born 29 September 1959) is a Norwegian author and dramatist. Biography Jon Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway. A serious accident at age seven brought him close to death; the experience significantly influenced his adulthood wr ...

(2008, Det Norske Teatret) * ''Ganesh versus the Third Reich'' by Back to Back Theatre (2011, Back to Back Theatre)

Contemporary dance

* ''IBM 1401, a User's Manual'' with Erna Ómarsdóttir (2002) * ''Mysteries of Love'' with Erna Ómarsdóttir (2005)

Filmography

Films

Documentaries

Short films

Television

References

External links

* *
Biography
at

Touch Music Touch (sometimes mistakenly written 'Touch Records' and sometimes written Touch Music, which is technically the publishing side of the company) is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. Touch was founded in 1982 by Jon ...

Kitchen Motors.com
Johann Johannsson's record label

on Beggars.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Johann Johannsson 1969 births 2018 deaths Minimalist composers Icelandic film score composers Icelandic musicians Icelandic male musicians 4AD artists Deutsche Grammophon artists 20th-century Icelandic people Golden Globe Award-winning musicians Cocaine-related deaths Drug-related deaths in Germany Musicians from Reykjavík