4AD Journal

Johann Johannsson on Pitchfork

Click here to hear a new track from Jóhann Jóhannsson as hosted as a Forkcast on Pitchfork. Full story as appears on site below…

When we last heard from the Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, on IBM 1401 – A User’s Manual, his sixty-piece string orchestra was often— however improbably— dwarfed by the old reel-to-reel recordings culled from an antiquated computer mainframe he blended with it. On “The Rocket Builder”, from his forthcoming album Fordlandia (the second album in a proposed triology exploring technology), he remains poised between technology and tradition, but reverts to the style of Englabörn, where technology subtly complemented his orchestration instead of devouring it. He buries a taut electronic pulse under towering interstitial strings. A circular piano phrase proceeds with the inevitability of a liftoff sequence. But this is “The Rocket Builder”, not “The Rocket Launcher”, and the composition doubles back via a bare piano bridge to build upon itself with reverbed thwacks and mightily distorted chords. We don’t get to hear the blast-off, which seems apt for a composer whose work thrives on tactful omission and a restraint that never feels miserly.